Lightweighting with high-tensile steel
For body and chassis engineers and buyers who must take weight out of a part without losing its strength - and still launch on the date.
What ENCO presses today
High-tensile steel, in series production
ENCO presses sheet from 0.5 to 8 mm - cold-rolled, galvannealed, hot-rolled and high-tensile steel up to 590 MPa - and designs and builds the dies for it in its own tool room.
Side impact beams for front and rear doors are made in induction-hardened steel up to 1,765 MPa, in more than 50 variants.
Before a tool is cut, forming is simulated in Altair HyperWorks: cracks, wrinkles, thinning and springback are predicted, and the die and punch are compensated - for high-tensile and complex-phase steels too.
ENCO also stamps aluminium, for heat shields on car air-conditioning units.
Before you lightweight a part
Four mistakes that cost a launch
Drawing it like a mild-steel part
High-tensile steel stretches less before it splits. Radii, draw depths and flanges carried over from the mild-steel design crack at trial. They need setting for the grade while the design can still change.
Leaving springback for the trial
The stronger the steel, the more the part springs back after forming. If the die is not compensated for it from feasibility, the first trial parts are out of shape and the loop of die corrections eats the launch time.
Forgetting what the steel does to the tools
Higher-strength sheet wears trim and pierce edges faster and needs more press force. Tool steel, clearances and the press itself have to be chosen for the grade, or part quality drifts within months.
Welding it like mild steel
High-strength and coated steels change the spot-weld and MIG settings. Weld parameters proved on mild steel do not carry over; they have to be proved on the real stack of sheets.
Choosing a supplier for a high-tensile part
Five questions to ask any supplier - including us
- Which grades and thicknesses do you press in series today - not on a trial?
- How do you allow for springback: in the die design, or at the trial?
- Which press and tonnage would make my part, and with how much margin?
- How are the welds on high-strength steel proved and checked?
- How is the part measured against the 3D model, and how often?
A tech review on your part
Send the drawing. An ENCO engineer goes through it with your team before any quote: the grade, the forming, springback, the tooling route, the welding and how the part will be checked. You get the risks in writing, whether or not you go on to an RFQ.
Senior engineers from pressing, welding, forming and machining run the review, and where it helps ENCO makes micro-samples.
Questions buyers ask
Has ENCO made parts as complex as ours?
Send the drawing and judge for yourself. An ENCO engineer reviews it with your team before any quote - the steel grade, the forming, the tooling route, the welding and how the part will be checked - and says plainly where the risk is.
Senior engineers from pressing, welding, forming and machining look at it, and where it helps ENCO makes micro-samples.
Can we see the plant before we send an RFQ?
Yes. Ask for a visit and name the part you have in mind, so you see the line, the dies and the checking that would make it.
ENCO invites customers to audit its plants.
How will we know a new part is on track?
ENCO tracks every launch in its Obeya room with Critical Chain project management. Rank A plans set the milestones, Rank B plans the work in 4-hour blocks, and Rank C is the recovery plan when a milestone slips.
Seen in practice
High-strength parts ENCO has made
Send us the part you want lighter.
Ask an ENCO engineer for a tech review of your drawing - grade, forming, tooling and welding. An answer from a person within one working day.