The two-day event kicked off with ArcelorMittal’s Jean-Martin Van der Hoeven, Vice President ArcelorMittal, Chief Marketing Officer Global Automotive, and Mobility Solutions and Head of Sustainability Development, Climate Action Team, ArcelorMittal Europe presenting “Changes, Challenges and Opportunities.”  

The annual IABC event began in 1993 and provides a forum for discussion at an engineer-to-engineer level. The two-day agenda is heavily focused on the transformation of the automotive industry from internal combustion engines to battery electric vehicles. 

Jean-Martin set the stage for ArcelorMittal’s role in the conference, addressing ArcelorMittal’s priorities and strategies to address climate change.

The BEV discussion today, contends Jean-Martin, is about the underbody structure. He points to the most important factorsfor the structure including lightweighting, sustainability (CO2 impact), responsible sourcing of raw materials, geopolitical impacts from raw material sourcing, the vehicle operating cost for the buyer (insurance, repairability), the vehicle’s circularity and the capital and operating expenses for manufacturing.  

He stresses that ArcelorMittal steel solutionsoffer the best technology for the BEV underbody structure, with weight savingsovermegacasting structures. Ultra-High Strength Steels (UHSS) and ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™ technology remain key for passive safety, weight savings, range optimization, sustainability of BEV’s, low CO2 intensity, affordability andrepairability. 

Jean-Martin emphasized ArcelorMittal’s leading technology position amongst steel company’s sharing with attendees that10 out of 12 ArcelorMittal majorNorth AmericanOEM customers share with our teams that ArcelorMittal is the top technology steel company. 

Peter Leblanc, Chief Marketing Officer, North America Automotive took the baton from Jean-Martin to give conference attendees a North America view of ArcelorMittal’s offering. He reviewed ArcelorMittal’s suite of projects to lower process GHG emissions in the region, highlighting a shift from blast furnace to basic oxygen furnace steelmaking at the Hamilton, ON, CA plant; direct reduced iron to electric arc furnace steelmaking and the acquisition of Texas HBI near Corpus Christi, TX;and an investment in ArcelorMittal Mining Canada to convert the plant’s blast furnace iron ore pellets to direct reduced iron pellets. 

Peter shared that ArcelorMittal’s flat steelmaking in North America will be 100 per cent via Electric Arc Furnace steelmaking by 2030 thanks to a more than $3B USD investment in decarbonization in the region. He further emphasized the evolution of vehicles over the past 30 years in terms of weight, horsepower, and fuel efficiency.

Peter points out that steel currently makes up 57 per cent on average of a vehicle and ArcelorMittal has played a key role in the advancements over the decadesbyproviding lightweight, crash resistant, and affordable steel solutions, first for internal combustion engine vehicles and now for battery electric vehicles.Battery electric vehiclesare now projected to make up 45 per cent of new vehicles in 2030, which signals a “massive transition over a short period of time” according to Peter. 

ArcelorMittal’s response is an S-in motion^® catalogue of steel solutions for BEV, its latest ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) including new multi-phase grades, as well as the Usibor^® and Ductibor^® press hardenablegrades used in the latest ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™ solutions that combine existing hot stamping and laser welded blanks technology. 

Rounding out Peter’s presentation was a look at currentXCarb™ offering, including XCarb™ Recycled and Renewably Produced steel and the XCarb™ Innovation Fund, which most recently invested in CHAR Technologies, based in Canada. The XCarb™ Innovation Fund was recently named Impact Fund of the Year, 2023 at the Hydrogen Impact Investment Awards. 

The conference also included ArcelorMittal presentations on ArcelorMittal Multi Part Integration™, a steel protection shield for battery packs and battery pack cold plates in steel. 

Steel Solutions for Efficient and Safe Battery Packs

YannisKheyati, Senior Research Engineer, Global Research and Development, Automotive Product Applications, presented his investigations into a steel protection shield for battery packs.

The steel design fulfilled underbody impact load case requirements and compared it with two different aluminum grades: 6XXX-Series and 7XXX-Series.CAE simulations andcrash test experiments with physical demonstrators showed that at the same mass and same load, the MartINsite^® 1500 solution has lower intrusion, better force resistance and better failure resistance compared to the aluminum 6XXX-Series and 7XXX-Series.  

Ram Iyer, Manager, Co-Engineering, Global Research and Development, Automotive Product Applications, presented battery pack cold plates in steel. 

CDRs provide spaciousness and better ingress and egress, as well as all the benefits of MPIs like improved structural strength, part consolidation, assembly simplification and CO2 emission reduction. The CDR combined with an integrated door reinforcement creates a safety structure that ensures passenger and battery safety. 

ArcelorMittal’s presence at the 30-year IABC anniversary event signaled a continued commitment to innovation and technology at a pivotal time in the automotive sector.