JFE Steel Corporation announced today that its 1310 MPa grade high-tensile steel sheet has been adopted for cold-press-forming body-frame parts in Mazda Motor Corporation’s newest-model Mazda3 car. Its strength as vehicle body-frame parts formed by cold-press forming is of the world’s highest level.

To adopt the high-tensile steel sheet, JFE Steel and Mazda Motor cooperated in overcoming technical challenges in areas such as press formability and dimensional accuracy of parts, thereby freeing the car manufacturer from having to use conventional processing methods.

JFE Steel’s high-tensile steel sheet offers excellent resistance to delayed fractures (static brittle fractures caused by hydrogen after press forming) and achieves highly stable strength. Its superior performance is due to the minimized addition of alloy elements, which JFE Steel achieved by utilizing the high cooling capacity of its proprietary JFE-CAL water-quenching continuous annealing process. Production is carried out at the company’s West Japan Works in Fukuyama, Japan.

In the pursuit of vehicle body frames offering enhanced protection and weight savings for better fuel efficiency, high-tensile steel sheet not exceeding 1180 MPa has been used so far due to problems with cold-press forming steel sheet of higher tensile strength. High-tensile steel plates of 1310 MPa to 1470 MPa are already used for bumper parts, etc., but processing has been limited to roll forming.

Going forward, JFE Steel expects to extend the performance of its advanced steel sheet as well as expand its scope of use, aiming to contribute to the continued enhancement of vehicle safety and environmental friendliness.

About JFE Steel

JFE Steel Corporation, one of the world's leading integrated steel producers, was established through the consolidation of NKK Corporation and Kawasaki Steel Corporation in 2003. The company operates several steelworks in Japan and numerous branch offices and affiliates throughout the world. JFE Steel leverages world-class technologies and know-how to produce a wide range of products based on its “Only One, Number One” strategy of focusing on unique and best-in-class products. The company reported consolidated sales of 2,349 billion yen and consolidated crude steel output of 30.41 million tons in the fiscal year ended March 2017. For more information, please visit www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en.

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