M a t e r i a l s
The NSB NewSteelBody from ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG
is a new lightweight construction concept for steel
car bodies. It allows significant body-in-white
weight savings, can be manufactured using
available technologies and is virtually
cost-neutral.
NSB NewSteelBody: New Ways
Forward for Lightweighting with Steel
by Dr. Henrik Adam and Bernhard Osburg, ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG
The basis is Transparent Weight
an intelligent Saving
combination of
conventional The benchmark for the NSB
stampings and NewSteelBody was a current pro-
innovative tubu- duction vehicle in the compact van
lar components category regarded as the best in its
class in terms of crash behaviour.
Compared with this vehicle, the
NSB NewSteelBody offers a 24 %
weight reduction with the same
structural performance and only 2
% higher cost. The basis for this is
an intelligent combination of con-
ventional stampings and innova-
tive tubular components made from
materials selected according to
component requirements. The aim
of the project was not to achieve
weight reduction at any price but to
develop a body structure that could
be compared in detail with the
benchmark in order to define pre-
cisely where weight could be saved
and how. Just as important was the
manufacturing feasibility and eco-
nomic viability of the concept.
50
Around 46 % of the NSB body-
in-white consists of closed tubular
sections. Due to the elimination of
the welding flanges needed for
stampings, this concept offers con-
siderable potential for savings. 14
% of the weight reduction achieved
with the NSB is based on the fact
that the new body-in-white re-
quires fewer functional flanges
than the benchmark structure. 23
% of the weight saving is due to
the materials used, and 63 % to
new design methods and technolo-
gies. The weight reduction in the
load-bearing structure was
achieved without shifting the over-
all vehicle’s centre of gravity. The
reduction in axle load is 43 kilo-
grams on the front axle and 32
kilograms on the rear axle. Small
parts not affecting the body’s over-
all structural performance were not
considered separately. Instead,
nine kilograms was added to the
weight of the NSB. A further re-
duction in overall weight is possi-
24 % lighter than the bench-
mark: the NSB NewSteelBody
from ThyssenKrupp Stahl.
ble by means of secondary weight
savings of around 21 kilograms
due to lower performance require-
ments, for example in the engine,
brake, clutch and transmission ar-
eas.
Tube-Intensive, Light
and Safe
17 % of the hollow sections used
in the NSB are made from innova-
tive closed thin-walled Thyssen
Tailored Tubes processed by hy-
droforming into components with
high functional integration.
Thyssen Tailored Tubes with opti-
mised cross sections are used for
the front and rear side members
and the roof frame, forming the
basis of the structure. As well as
allowing complex shaping opera-
tions, hydroforming offers further
advantages such as uniform
stretching of the material and
evenly distributed strength in-
AutoTechnology 5/2004

creases in the component. This al-
lows the lightweighting potential
of modern multiphase steels to be
optimally exploited. Hydrofor-
ming can also be used to produce
components with increased tor-
sional stiffness and crash safety.
Material utilization is better than
in deep drawing, tooling costs are
lower and specified component
dimensions are achieved more
precisely than with other custom-
ary forming methods.
Ultra-high-strength
steels
Straight roll-formed profiles,
which can be produced from ultra-
high-strength steels at low cost,
are used for the rockers, front seat
crossmembers, hinge pillars and
instrument panel crossmember.
Bent roll-formed profiles are used
for the dash panel crossmember
and the A-pillar brackets. The dash
panel crossmember in particular
with its central inner web illus-
trates that roll forming can be
used to produce parts with com-
plex cross-sections. Hydroformed
parallel plate blanks are used in
the B, C and D-pillars, where their
shorter flanges can be utilized to
optimise closure sealing. The
structure is rounded off by the tar-
geted use of stampings – some of
them tailored blanks – for sheet
metal parts, connecting plates,
short brackets and wheel arches.
The tube-intensive design is
AutoTechnology 5/ 2004
not only responsible for the low
weight but also for the good crash
performance of the NewSteelBody.
The front side member, for exam-
ple, the most important compo-
nent for performance in a frontal
impact, is a flangeless, conical hy-
droformed tube. The side member
has to absorb as much kinetic en-
ergy as possible by deformation
but must not buckle. The tubular
design resulted in an optimised
cross-section compared with the
stamped solution, with improved
utilization of packaging space.
This allowed the side member to
be made much straighter and with
greater buckling resistance than
the benchmark component.
Energy absorption by the side
member, including the subframe
brackets, is higher than with the
Figure 3: Conical hydroformed side
member made in a production die.
M a t e r i a l s
2% Davex pro-
files, 20% roll-
formed profiles,
45% stampings,
17% hydro-
formed tubes,
9 % tailored
blanks.
benchmark structure, despite the The tubular
significantly lower weight. design resulted
in an optimised
cross-section
Euro NCAP Crash
Validation
Crash performance validation was
carried out with the software LS-
DYNA. The scope of the NSB proj-
ect included only the body struc-
ture. The NSB simulation model,
excluding the load case-specific
elements (barrier, pole etc.), had
around 639,000 joints and
648,000 elements. The Euro-NCAP
frontal offset crash test was used
for the NSB front end. In this, the
vehicle drives into a deformable
barrier at 64 kilometres per hour
with 40 % offset. The NSB
NewSteelBody matched the rat-
ings of the benchmark vehicle. The
test used to evaluate side impact
performance was also in line with
Euro-NCAP requirements. As with
the frontal crash, structural per-
formance was assessed on the ba-
sis of suitable mechanical param-
eters, in this case maximum
intrusion and velocity of the B-
pillar structure. Global deforma-
tion was also analysed.
In the simulation of the bench-
mark vehicle, the side impact was
the only load case tested with a
non-reduced model, as the seat
structure also contributes to the
stability of the benchmark model.
Although the doors were not part
of the development scope of the
NSB, they were designed with all
of the important structural parts
for the side impact test and in-
51
M a t e r i a l s
Side impact NSB.
Frontal crash NSB.
cluded in the simulation. The intru-
sion velocity of the B-pillar, meas-
ured at two points at window level
and at the pelvic impact point, was
below the values of the benchmark
vehicle at all times.
Feasibility and Cost-
Effectiveness
Another central project goal was to
demonstrate the suitability of the
NSB concept for volume production.
52
Elaborate simulations were carried
out, particularly for components
requiring complex forming opera-
tions. The components investigat-
ed included the hydroformed par-
allel plates and tubes as well as
tailored blanks and conventional
stampings. The findings from the
individual stages in the develop-
ment work were then used in fur-
ther simulations for gradual com-
ponent optimisation. To verify the
results of the incremental forming
simulations, the structural compo-
nents relevant for frontal crash
performance were successfully
manufactured in pre-production
tooling in the proposed material
grades and thicknesses. The last
step was a hardware prototype of
the NSB, consisting of a quarter
section of the whole body-in-
white.
Feasibility and cost-effective-
ness were also central to the
process plans that were prepared
for all stages of the project. The
technical information gained in
the forming simulations and
recorded in component data
sheets, such as operation se-
quences and blank sizes, was fed
into the costing calculations.
Information on tooling costs was
obtained from production-experi-
enced tool manufacturers in the
ThyssenKrupp Group and also in-
cluded. To calculate the costs of
the stampings, a virtual stamping
plant was designed to allow realis-
tic plant loading. Materials and
components made using other
technologies were calculated using
data from actual equipment.
To determine the other manu-
facturing costs of the NSB struc-
ture, a detailed plant layout was
developed for the body-in-white
line, and cost-relevant parameters
such as billing of materials, floor
space and manpower requirements
were extracted. Via the layout,
other investigations such as acces-
sibility analyses were carried out
to further optimise the production
processes. The costing calculations
and the computation of the in-
vestment costs were carried out on
the basis of information from an
equipment manufacturer in the
ThyssenKrupp Group. The produc-
tion costs of the benchmark vehi-
cle based on the NSB production
scenario were also calculated to
allow neutral comparison with the
stamping-based design. The re-
sults show that, despite new in-
vestment for equipment and tool-
ing, the cost of producing a
body-in-white based on the NSB
concept is only 2 % higher – an
outstanding result in view of the
expected 24 % weight saving.
Summary
The NSB concept demonstrates the
potential for innovative lightweight
construction offered by steel.
Manufacturable under volume pro-
duction conditions, the concept al-
lows a significant body-in-white
weight reduction at an extra cost of
only around 60 eurocents per kilo-
gram weight saving. Compared with
other lightweighting materials, steel
is therefore an attractive economic
alternative. Safety requirements are
fully met thanks to the use of new
technologies in the body-in-white.
The NSB can be seen as an ideas
platform for the development of fur-
ther customer-specific NSB projects.
In addition, further optimisation of
the weight savings achieved in the
concept can be expected from vehi-
cle-related packaging latitude and
new steel materials.
Cost distribution NSB.
AutoTechnology 5/ 2004
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