Ternium makes steel for the automobile sector.
These are times of changes.
Many industries are going through a series of changes regarding challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the advance of new technologies.
One of these industries is the automobile industry, which is being relevantly reconfigured, with the process of transport electrification, said Fernando Actis, Global vice-president for Research and Development at Ternium during his participation in the “Proveedor Automotriz” event, organized by the Nuevo León Automotive Cluster (CLAUT, in Spanish).
In their online conference, which took place on November 24th, Actis highlighted the technological roadmap Ternium has, and how the company has transformed for the last 10 years, to adapt itself to the requirements of automobile industry.
Fernando Actis, Global Vice-president for Research and Development at Ternium.
Today, these needs point towards having lighter and more resistant steels to be used in electric and autonomous vehicles. Besides, they must be conceived for safer automobiles, with the smallest environmental impact possible, having a prolonged useful life, and with more competitive costs.
“Automobiles will be electric, plugged and autonomous.” This will impact greatly the design of automobiles, which is notable in the steels being required. With this transformation, there are new players and we, as the steel providers for automobile sector, have to be very close to these trends,” Actis said.
In order to adapt to these trends, the company has undertaken several research processes, developments and new investments to produce special steel.
For example, in the new Hot Laminator, located in the Ternium Industrial Center, which started operating June this year, specialized steel is produced for the automobile industry and home appliances.
The new Hot Rolling Mill has high-end technology.
“This year, a cutting-edge technology, brand-new Hot Laminator Rolling Mill was commissioned. This is the most innovative and modern one in the Americas and the world. This allows us to evolve towards a model of innovation and development”, he said.
The hot rolling mill laminator has a yearly capacity of 4.4 million tons, and has the latest technology to make automated processes happen.
In this conference, Juan Pablo Pedraza, Global Director or Research and Development for Ternium was present, and he affirmed that advanced steel is the solution for newer electric and autonomous cars.
Nevertheless, Pedraza mentioned that one of the main challenges for users of these new steel materials is understanding which class must be chosen to produce one specific component. This way, it will be possible to exploit all the advantages this material has.
“Not all steels are made equal, and when designing, we must have certain requirements and comply with certain functional conditions to tackle the performance of one type of steel versus the other facing one same specification”, Pedraza pointed out.
Juan Pablo Pedraza, Global Director for Research and Development at Ternium.
Safety is fundamental in the automobile sector. This is why Pedraza coincided in the fact that it's necessary to produce steel that allows for cars to be made safer for passengers.
Currently, Ternium participates in Steel E-Motive, a program that will design and test engineering solutions using advanced steels in order to adapt to the latest tendencies in the automotive field, with the main goal of showing that this material is fundamental for the future of the industry.
The results of the synergy between companies and academy
The results of the synergy between companies and academy
Ternium is part of this effort together with other metallurgic companies worldwide.
“Developments generated by the automotive industry impact throughout all industries; especially the steel industry which is a motor of innovation and development of technologies”, added Pedraza at the “Proveedor Automotriz” forum from CLAUT, a specialized business convention for the supply chain of automobile industry, with the greatest prestige in the north of Mexico.
It has been organized by CLAUT since 2011, with the support from the Secretary of Economy and Labor in the State Government of Nuevo León, was created with the goals of promoting national integration and giving impulse to industry.