Advanced High-Strength and Other Specialty Sheet Steel Products for the Automotive Industry

Focus: Developmental activities in advanced high-strength and other specialty products for the automotive industry.

Topics: Advanced high-strength steels; other specialty sheet steel products (e.g., noise-damping steel, laser welded blanks, pre-primed products); product applications; forming; welding; energy absorption.

Automotive and Ground Vehicles: Applications of Materials to Vehicle Designs

Focus: Relationship of materials to successful ground-based vehicle designs.

Topics: Advanced design concepts; powertrain and drivetrain designs; safety; reduction of noise, vibration and harshness; multifunctional materials; armor/armored vehicles.

Automotive and Ground Vehicles: Materials and Processes for Vehicles

Focus: Materials and processes used to build ground-based vehicles.

Topics: Deformation processes (forging, forming, stamping, formability/springback, etc); joining processes; solidification processing of ferrous metals; surface treatment and processing; wrought and powder metals (Al, Ti, Mg, Fe); composites; cast iron.

Automotive Light Metal Castings: Technology and Applications

Focus: Automotive cast components made of aluminum, magnesium and other light metals.

Topics: Alloy development; melt treatment and control; microstructure evolution and phase transformations; casting process; welding and joining; machining and machinability; properties and performance; failure and durability analysis.

High-Density Hydrogen Storage for Automotive Applications: Materials and Methods

Focus: Novel hydrogen storage materials - modeling and experiment; vehicle implementation methodologies.

Topics: Materials development and characterization; solid state hydrides; sorbents; chemical hydrides; prototype systems; thermodynamics; kinetics.

Zinc Coated Steel Sheets

Focus: Recent developments in the performance and processing of zinc-coated sheet steels intended for use in automotive bodies and structures.

Topics: Effect of galvanizing on mechanical properties on high strength steels; new zinc-based protective coatings for high strength steels; achieving high quality surface appearance on automotive body steels.