Corus is committed to enhancing vehicle safety through its products, processing technologies and design best practice.
Corus knows that its steel and aluminium products must be consistent and defect free so that they perform reliably under the severest of crash conditions. Corus has developed new material grades which have been especially created to absorb greater energy during a crash to help to protect the occupants.
As well as materials advances, Corus has taken a lead in promoting new manufacturing processes and design ideas to help the metals and automotive industries collaborate to meet the goals of making cars that are lighter, more rigid and safer. Properties Steel and aluminium both absorb the impact energy of a crash in the way they crush and deform before reaching their ultimate failure point.
New grades of steel have been introduced in recent years specifically designed with properties to increase the amount of energy that they can absorb during a crash
While aluminium has generally lower strength than steel, it is also much lighter and when the correct grades are used it can produce vehicles that are lighter and just as crashworthy as similar sized vehicles made from steel. While these vehicles are usually more expensive to produce, their light weight also brings benefits in terms of fuel economy, acceleration and braking performance. Metals and processing technologies The introduction of High Strength Steels and Advanced Aluminium Alloys have been vital to the improvements in vehicle safety achieved in recent years.
Corus is at the forefront of new processing technologies such as laser welded blanks and tubular hydroforming. These processes help create structures that are rigid and safe without increasing weight. Reliability Many car components must operate continuously under severe but fluctuating loads. If they were to fail they could cause expensive damage or even potentially lead to an accident
One of the key requirements for metals is that they perform consistently and reliably throughout their service life. This is about excellence in manufacture to provide consistency, quality and reliability.
All of Corus' plants carry BS EN ISO 9000 quality certification. Those supplying the automotive industry are also approved to all of the quality assurance schemes of the vehicle manufacturers.
Since different components require different properties to perform their design requirements, Corus manufactures a range of materials, tailor-made for different automotive applications and their processing route. ULSAB AVC Corus is a leading member of the consortium running the Advanced Vehicle Concepts (AVC) programme, which builds on the earlier UltraLight Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) light-weighting initiative. That programme had demonstrated how, through the use of the latest steels, design and manufacturing techniques, it was possible to design a vehicle body 80% stiffer and nearly 25% lighter than similar existing cars.
The new ULSAB-AVC project builds on the previous work but focuses more on safety. The initial target is to create a mid-sized family car design that is as safe as a large car when judged using the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) test process. While doing this the engineers remain focused on the issues of light weight and manufacturing cost. Simulating reality Corus is assisting the automotive industry in the application of advanced simulation techniques such as Finite Element Analysis to make cars safer. Corus is helping to refine and improve the accuracy with which this computer modelling can predict the behaviour of a vehicle during an impact.
Based on these results the engineers can modify the vehicle to improve it's performance both for legal barrier tests and real life crashes. Making a difference In the quality and properties of its metals, in the technologies of using them and in research and development, Corus is making a difference to car safety. | 
