On Thursday 14 April 2016, it was announced that voestalpine and ArcelorMittal will be combining their expertise as providers of special steels for hotforming to globally market a new range of galvanised, press hardened steels for hot-formed automotive components.
Entitled phs-directform©, voestalpine's press hardened steel is high strength, coupled with lower material weight while at the same time maintaining a high level of crash performance. An added benefit is its direct stamping production, which is known to be cost efficient as a process.
"ArcelorMittal has been developing press hardened steels for more than a decade, to offer the most advanced and complete range on the market," commented Philippe Aubron, CMO ArcelorMittal Automotive Europe. "With this agreement with voestalpine on phs-directform©, we have the widest range of hot stamped steels in the world, with products accommodating any kind of hot stamping process: Usibor®, Ductibor® and phs-directform© for direct stamping, as well as galvanised press hardened steels for indirect stamping."
