From November 13 to 16, 2023, ArcelorMittal’s North American sales and technical teams hosted Innovation Days, a weeklong series of events for our North American automotive customers. The event, hosted in Southfield, MI, featured information about our latest in sustainability, products, solutions and applications, with interactive displays as well as presentations from our experts in Global Research and Development.

One of the centrepieces of Innovation Days was ArcelorMittal Multi-Part Integration™.

Ram Iyer, Manager, Co-Engineering, APA Center, Global Research and Development, and Nachiket Gokhale, Manager of Product Development, ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks (AMTB) led a session on a new sustainable steel solution that simplifies vehicle design and production. ArcelorMittal’s Multi Part Integration™ (MPI), simplifies car manufacturing as it allows multiple vehicle components to be integrated into one large stamping using laser welded blanks (LWB) – significantly reducing the required assembly steps and the complexity of car manufacturing.

The solution has the potential to be lower in vehicle weight and cost of vehicle assembly compared to high pressure diecasting solutions. Ram showed the overall benefits of this technology while Nachiket led an in-depth look at an inner and outer double door ring solution, which was also on display.

 Nachiket zeroed in on the part count reduction, assembly benefits, CO2 equivalent emissions reduction, material utilization summary and cost optimization of the MPI double door ring solution. “This is the next major innovation in steel applications,” Ram contends.

Lisa Poort, Manager, Decarbonization Metallurgical Process and Transition shared ArcelorMittal’s approach to sustainability with attendees. ArcelorMittal has a global approach – steel will be made in different ways in different parts of the world based on the availability of clean energy and steel related climate policies. She spoke about ArcelorMittal’s efforts to develop all the technologies that can support the decarbonization of steelmaking, as all have a valuable contribution to make to net zero steelmaking.

Marcelo Andrade, Group Manager, Process Efficiency and Sustainability, Global R&D provided several examples of how ArcelorMittal is taking action, utilizing different technologies to progress towards net zero emissions.
That includes having the first sustainable biomass plant integrated into a steel facility and the European steel industry’s first carbon capture and re-use plant, both at our plant in Gent, Belgium. He also spoke about our European carbon capture pilot projects, a successful pilot in Canada which partially replaced natural gas with green hydrogen to produce DRI, our investment in hydrogen ready DRI plants as well as a partnership to construct the world’s first industrial-scale low temperature, iron electrolysis plant.

Stan Lipkowski, Principal Projects Manager, Sustainability, Global R&D introduced the XCarb™ portfolio of projects and products. “Our customers are asking for low-carbon steel today, and we have been first-movers in delivering solutions,” Stan says. Stan shared that one of our solutions is Xcarb™ Recycled and Renewably Produced steel which is produced via electric arc steelmaking with a guaranteed 70 per cent minimum scrap content and 100 per cent renewable electricity, and available today. It is the lowest embodied carbon sheet steel product currently produced in North America.

Stan reinforced ArcelorMittal’s commitment to leaving no stone unturned in the search for decarbonization technologies and the role of the XCarb™ Innovation Fund in that. The 2023 Impact fund of the Year invests in the best and brightest breakthrough technologies that hold the potential to accelerate decarbonization of our industry. Since launch, we’ve invested over $190m across a broad range of technological opportunities.

David Price, Principal Scientist at ArcelorMittal Global R&D provided an overview of the suite of ArcelorMittal’s innovative automotive product solutions currently available and under development with specific focus on Advanced and Ultra High Strength Steels and Automotive coatings.

He emphasized that across North America we have 21 facilities that serve the Automotive market, with two Research and Development Centres (East Chicago, Indiana and Hamilton, Ontario) where teams are devoted to flat product research and work collaboratively with our European labs. In addition, our Automotive Product Applications R&D team based in Southfield, MI is dedicated to steel solutions and new innovative product implementation. ArcelorMittal has more than 500 dedicated researchers globally supporting innovations in the automotive market today.

David touched on dual phase steels, multi-phase steels, steels for hot stamping, high strength low alloy steels, as well as coating technologies. He also highlighted a new technology he highlighted is Thermoboost^®.

Multiphase grades represent a step-change in improvement for high strength steels (1500 MPa and above). These grades have better bendability and enhanced flatness, without internal stresses
or high YS. The shape of mults have improved with little or no twisting.

 “Thermoboost^® is a coating specifically designed to reduce the heating time for the press hardenable steels in the hot stamping furnace,” David shared. “Data demonstrates that with Thermoboost^® there is 42 to 47 per cent improved heating cycle time. Thermoboost^® delivers product consistency across multiple gauges, leads to increased productivity and reduced CO2 footprint and significantly increased design flexibility.”

To demonstrate these innovations, the event showcased both demonstrator and production parts ranging from MPI solutions such as the double door ring as well as roll-formed parts made with high bendability steel grades like the MP1500, to 3D printed parts made with metal additive manufacturing processes that highlight ArcelorMittal’s focus in future disruptive manufacturing processes.

A big thanks to all our customers that attended Innovation Days 2023 – we were pleased to host you and talk about our partnerships and the future of automotive steel!