Corus Hyfo and Novamerican bring advanced hydroforming to North America
19 May 2002
A venture announced today in Detroit between Corus Hyfo, part of the international metals company Corus, and Novamerican Steel Inc. will offer the North American automotive industry a new material solution for hydroforming technology, providing cost, weight and performance benefits for vehicle manufacturers.
The venture, to be known as Nova Hyfo, will combine the benefits of using Corus’s advanced and unique laser welded tubular product, the ‘Hyfo Tubular Blank’ with Novamerican Steel’s high quality tube operations to further extend the potential and existing benefits of hydroforming applications in vehicle design and manufacture.
As demonstrated by the international steel industry’s ULSAB-AVC Advanced Vehicle Concepts programme, hydroforming with laser welded tube can be used by automotive engineers as a way to optimise future car designs with fewer components, helping to reduce vehicle weight and therefore improve performance and emissions. More efficient designs will also allow vehicle designers to focus on key issues such as crash management to improve vehicle safety, and using less material to eliminate waste in the supply chain helping to reduce manufacturing costs.
Following two years of extensive process development, Corus’s unique Hyfo Tubular Blank has won production contracts in Europe where its benefits over existing tubes for hydroforming are already being recognised by vehicle manufacturers.
These benefits include diameter to thickness ratios, helping to further reduce the weight of tubular parts, and improved formability. Tailored Tubular Blanks, made from a combination of steels of different grades and-or thicknesses selected to provide the precise performance properties required at specific points on a vehicle, will help further reduce vehicle weight and will lead to reduction in costs through parts consolidation. In addition, the ability to produce non-cylindrical parts, for example conical Tubular Blanks for specific applications such as door pillars, will further allow vehicle engineers to enhance vehicle performance through optimising design.
Commenting on the venture, Kevin Edgar of Corus Hyfo said: “We are delighted to be working with Novamerican Steel to offer the North American automotive market the latest steel processing technologies to help meet vehicle manufacturers’ aims of reducing cost, vehicle weight and emissions.”
Rob Taberner, vice president, Novamerican Steel automotive operations added: “The North American market has already started to embrace the benefits of hydroforming and we are confident that together we will be able to demonstrate the extensive advantages of using Nova Hyfo’s advanced Tubular Blanks.”
Nova Hyfo will have representatives based in Detroit to service vehicle manufacture design teams as well as Ontario where a number of hydroforming tier one companies have their operations.
Note to editors:
Novamerican Steel Inc is the holding company for two main operating groups: Nova Steel Ltd. (Canada) and American Steel and Aluminium Corporation (US). As well as specializing in the manufacture of tubing Novamerican Steel Inc processes and distributes carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium products and operates as an intermediary between primary metal producers and manufacturers. Novamerican Steel is a NASDAQ quoted company.
Corus was formed on the 6 October 1999, through the merger of British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens to create an innovative metals company that combines international expertise with local service. Approximately eighteen per cent of its business is supplying the automotive sector. Corus manufactures in 17 countries with major manufacturing plants in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Norway and USA. The company has sales offices in 41 countries covering all continents.
Press release can be downloaded from websites: www.automotivepr.com www.corusgroup.com, www.newspress.co.uk and www.novamerican.com, www.newspress.co.uk
Rob Palmer
+44 1582 763255
rpalmer@automotivepr.com
Marco Ferrari
+44 1582 763259
mferrari@automotivepr.com
Corus Hyfo sales and marketing enquiries:
Kevin Edgar
+ 44 (0) 1536 404014
kevin.edgar@corusgroup.com
Maurice van Giezen
+31 (0) 251 496336
maurice.van-giezen@corusgroup.com
Nova Hyfo sales and marketing enquiries:
Rob Taberner
+1 519 622 5115
Esther Houghland
+1 519 622 5115
esther_houghland@novamerican.com
Terry Burton
+1 734 572 8844
