Bright partner for stainless steel.

The number of vehicles and commuters is rising daily, as are demands on vehicle manufacturers. Environmental aspects and high demands on steel and its processing are playing an increasingly important role in this. And this is precisely the opportunity for ThyssenKrupp Stahl-Service-Center GmbH. With six plants, interests in Herzog Coilex and ThyssenKrupp Maßblech in Germany and further facilities in the United Kingdom, France and Spain, many routes are becoming shorter. Andreas Schwöbel from the steel service center in Mannheim knows: “We offer customers, e.g. in the area of car exhaust systems, a top-quality service package with first-rate steel products and first-class processing.” Not only are slit strip and sheets in all standard steel grades manufactured here, the plant also specializes in various stainless steels.

Car exhausts are complex systems with a wide variety of material requirements. For example, the front hot section requires materials that are highly resistant to scaling and vibration. In addition, good high-temperature resistance and durability are required. The middle section needs to be able to withstand significant temperature fluctuations and wet corrosion. In addition to corrosion protection, optical aspects are also important in the end mufflers. In the past, muffler housings and pipes were manufactured almost exclusively from hot-dip aluminized sheet – a material with good corrosion protection and exceptional heat resistance and high-temperature strength. The special ThyssenKrupp grade DX55D+AS is suitable for temperatures as high as 800 degrees Celsius. Today, a combination of various flat stainless steel products with different alloy compositions in exhaust systems is a popular solution. They lend themselves to this not only because of their high temperature and corrosion resistance, but also because of their machinability for thin-walled, weight-saving designs.

Key customers now only need a single contact: from coil through slit strip to non-standard shapes or trapezoidal blanks. Technological expertise, individual service packages and manufacture from a single source are just a few of the advantages to customers of the partnership with ThyssenKrupp Steel and ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. How well the principle works can be seen in a practical example: an exhaust system from Boysen in Altensteig is used in the Audi A8. The Mannheim steel service center supplies most of this system in the form of stainless steel slit strip. The customer is supported before and throughout the production process – beginning with material selection in the development phase to high-tech day-to-day processing. Flexible production and the provision of logistics services also saves valuable time and costs.

The material is not new: NIROSTA® steel has already proven itself over many years and is being continuously developed. An ADAC test back in the seventies confirmed the good properties of what was then the state-of-the-art material – number 1.4512 (German standard ID: X2CrTi12). It met requirements throughout the test and in all muffler positions. The test summary stated: “Use of NIROSTA® 4512 enables a four- to five-year guarantee commitment.” With the introduction of exhaust emission control systems, aggressive corrosive and thermal conditions have intensified further as a result of the 3-way catalytic converter and this trend is continuing. This is precisely the opportunity for stainless steel: it is light, environmentally friendly, resource-conserving, stable and high in quality. In the future, this material will continue to meet specifications resulting from stricter laws, satisfy demands for lightweight construction in order to reduce fuel consumption and meet additional visual and lifecycle requirements.

(Stahlmarkt, October 2005)