Tata Steel has started supplying UK car-makers with a British-made dent-resistant steel that helps to further reduce vehicle weight.
Bake Hardening 260 or ‘BH260’ helps car manufacturers make doors and bonnets that are 7% lighter, which improves cars’ fuel efficiency. The steel, which is being supplied to the UK market from Tata Steel’s South Wales operations, is made using a special strengthening technique that enables vehicles to retain the ability to withstand everyday knocks in the car park.
The BH260 product is one of two automotive grades that Tata Steel has recently made available for the first time from its UK plants (both are already made at Tata Steel’s plants on mainland Europe). They will initially be made at the Port Talbot works before being finished at the Zodiac line at Llanwern, Newport. They come in the form of coated strip (steel sheet) and provide car bodies that combine greater strength with lighter weight.
Tata Steel also introduced a grade of safety-critical automotive sheet steel called ‘DP800GI’. This addition to the range of Advanced High-Strength Steels available from Tata Steel in the UK is ideal for forming the crash structure of vehicles.
