Research and Development

Die Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH is the central research company of the Salzgitter Group. The R&D activities are concentrated mainly on the key areas of development of materials and processing, application and coating technologies, as well as test engineering. Along with the companies of Salzgitter AG, external companies, for instance from the automotive industry, the machinery and plant construction sector, energy technology and the construction industry, are customers.

The research of materials and development of applications now has an important tool in the form of a new and high-performance universal forming press which went into operation in the second quarter. At high forming speeds customer processes such as hot forming at nearly serial production conditions can be emulated and special material parameters identified. The materials selection process for the customer is thus considerably enhanced and accelerated through the timely, comprehensive assessment of forming properties in relation to real component geometries and process parameters.

Safety against lateral cracks through the application of special crack arrestors has been proven for tubes of the steel grade X100. The conducting of a “full-scale-burst test” on an approximately 80 meter long tube section under extreme operating conditions was another important step in the direction of introducing and producing high-strength tubes. Prior to this point, the X100 grade had already been introduced in the harmonized API 5L und ISO 3183 standards. The utilization of X100 permits the commercial transport of natural gas under high pressure over huge distances. Research and development work continues to be carried out in close cooperation with major natural gas companies in Europe and North America.