Press Hardening - the Lightweight Technology for Making Cars with More Safety and Less CO ₂ Emission

The worldwide automobile industry is currently focusing on developing autos of new generation with more safety, less CO₂ emission and alternative energy. The key to success is the lightweight technology. As a perfect example of lightweight technology the author would like to present the press-hardening technology from 3 major aspects: material, design and manufacturing. The press-hardening technology breaks the bottleneck for application of ultra-high strength steels and makes it possible for carmakers to increase the strength level up to 1500 MPa for the safety-relevant structure components and to achieve a weight reduction of about 20% without safety compromise and cost increase. Finally the recent developments with regard to press-hardening technology will be explained.