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ArcelorMittal has launched the first product in a new series of advanced high strength steels, with 10 automotive steel projects set for launch in 2014.

The new steel, HF1050, is a third-generation advanced high strength steel for cold stamping, for use in the automotive market. Using HF1050 will result in additional weight reductions in a vehicle’s structural components of up to 10%.

Carmakers have undertaken formability and weldability tests on HF1050 and the product is now ready for use, with the first mass-produced vehicles featuring HF1050 rolling off the production lines in 2016.

A direct result of research carried out at the company’s Maizières-lès-Metz campus, HF1050 has been developed for the European automotive market and is the first in a series of third-generation of advanced high strength steels (AHSS) that ArcelorMittal will launch in the coming years.

Third-generation AHSS combine excellent strength properties with formability, allowing a reduction of 10-20% in the weight of automotive components, compared with existing grades. This means that automotive manufacturers can meet new CO2 emission requirements and improve vehicle safety. 

These new steel grades are ideal for body-in-white structural parts - such as B-pillars and windscreen pillars - as they absorb more energy in an impact.

Ten new automotive products in 2014 

ArcelorMittal invested US$270m (around €200m) in R&D in 2013, with the Maizières-lès-Metz campus benefiting directly from this investment. 

On average, there are some 60 new products under development at the campus at any one time. 
About ten of these products are destined for the automotive market and will be launched during 2014. 

These new, cutting-edge steels confirm ArcelorMittal’s position as a global leader in technological innovation.

The Maizières campus recently benefited from new equipment to ensure research projects are carried out equally well on "processes” (improving the productivity and reliability of the group's plants, developing breakthrough technical processes) as on "products" and ensuring industrial feasibility. This new equipment includes a thermomechanical treatment simulator to develop higher strength steels and an electron microscope to observe steel "reactions" at atomic level. 

The Maizières-lès-Metz site will take on staff in the coming months, rising from 530 employees on permanent contracts to 549 by the end of 2014. 

Danièle Quantin, director of European research centres and human resources at ArcelorMittal Research and Development, explained the role of the Maizières-lès-Metz site within ArcelorMittal: "The group carries out research and development on a global scale. We collaborate with clients all around the world. The development of new processes and the design of innovative products, accompanied this year by new skills and investment, confirms the leading position of the Maizières-lès-Metz campus as a strategic component of the research and development network that assists all ArcelorMittal units."

Frédéric Grein, CEO of the Maizières-lès-Metz campus added: “The Maizières-lès-Metz campus currently employs 530 researchers, engineers and technicians and is by far the largest ArcelorMittal research facility. Its work covers almost all the group's activities, from mining to new products, to new steel manufacturing processes."