Economy
August 22, 2019
MSC Wins Auto Lightweighting Award for its Smart Steel
Written by Sandy Williams
Material Sciences Corp. was named as one of five winners of the 2019 Altair Enlightment Award given to honor the greatest achievement in vehicle weight savings.
MSC was honored for its MSC Smart Steel, a new multilayer steel laminate engineered as a direct substitute for low carbon steel stamped vehicle body parts. Offering a 20 percent to 40 percent mass save compared with same-thickness standard steel, MSC Smart Steel is produced as a coil, stamped in conventional dies, spot welded with existing equipment and processed through standard electro-coat and paint systems – essentially compatible with existing manufacturing systems. This is the first ever spot-weldable, low-density composite laminate to be used in a body application. The new material will debut in the market as roof bows on the 2020 Lincoln Aviator and the 2020 Escape/Corsair platforms.
