Another lesson of Ulsab is the value of cooperation. Individual steel companies can do that on their own as they compete for automotive orders. Engineers from General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, and from the different steel companies, share their knowledge about hydroforming, tailored blanking, high-strength steels, tooling, welding, lubricants, and dent resistance. Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable for engineers from the three different carmakers to share such knowledge, says U.S. Steel's Pete Peterson. Implementing the lessons of Ulsab is crucial to steel's ability to compete with aluminum, plastic, and magnesium.
Steel has the advantage of being the established material that auto engineers already know.
But that advantage is a distinct disadvantage when it predisposes automakers not to take a fresh look at the lessons of Ulsab. It's not just steelmakers who are educating OEMs in the importance of cost. Some very knowledgeable aluminum producers and distributors are doing exactly the same, I learned at a roundtable I recently moderated for Metal Center News , New Steel 's sister publication. The price of steel is cheaper, but the cost of aluminum is much less, since aluminum will last a lot longer in that application than steel. It's a simple matter of educating the end-user customer.