Production Use of Preprimed Steel for Automotive Stampings

The increasingly stringent quality, cost, weight reduction and corrosion resistance requirements of the late 80's and 90's require that steel producers create products more competitive on that basis with plastic materials. Pre-primed steels are one answer to this requirement. The pre-primed condition of the steel can eliminate the need for Elpo Coating of the stampings resulting in a simplier painting process with good corrosion resistance and reduced final product weight. Aftermarket exterior sheet metal stampings are of prime interest since use of pre-primed material would eliminate the painting operations at stamping plants and parts distribution warehouses. Several key issues must, however, be addressed before this material may be implemented on a broad scale in automotive stampings plants. The most basic being compatibility of the pre-primed material with the current automotive stamping environment. It is the intent of this paper to demonstrate that pre-primed sheet steel can be successfully formed using existing automotive stamping equipment and processes.