Tokyo – JFE Steel Corporation announced today that its resource-conserving, heat-resistant stainless steel—JFE-TF1—won the 2014 R&D 100 Award presented by the U.S. science and technology publication R&D Magazine. This marks the second straight year for JFE Steel to win an R&D 100 Award. The presentation ceremony took place in the U.S. city of Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 7.

JFE-TF1, an abbreviation of JFE Thermal Fatigue 1, is a ferritic stainless steel so named because it offers the world’s strongest resistance to thermal fatigue. It is an ideal material for parts such as exhaust manifolds and catalytic converter cases in automobiles, maintaining excellent durability at temperatures exceeding 800 degrees Celsius with excellent formability.

Conventionally, highly heat-resistant automotive parts are made of stainless steel containing molybdenum (Mo). As a rare metal, however, Mo has the drawback of widely fluctuating market prices. To address this problem, JFE Steel has developed a solution by adding aluminum and copper, which realizes steel products even more heat-resistant than Mo-bearing steel.

JFE-TF1 also offers excellent formability, so it can be used to produce a single part rather than having to weld multiple parts, thereby lowering the production workload.

The annual R&D 100 Awards , sometimes called the “Oscars of Invention,” recognize the top 100 technology products of the year as chosen by the magazine's editors and other experts. The products span 20 categories of industry-, academic- and government-sponsored research, including sophisticated testing equipment, innovative new materials, breakthrough chemicals and biomedical products.

Awards presentation ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada

Converter case using JFE-TF1

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