Salzgitter AG at the Hanover Fair

Staged from April 20 to 24, 2009, the Hanover Fair combines a total of 13 leading international trade fairs under one roof. The key topics of this year’s fair revolve around sustainability and the efficient use of resources. Salzgitter AG and its Steel, Trading, Tubes, Services and Technologies divisions will be appearing at the Subcontracting fair in Hall 5 on Stand A14.

The stand is an exhibit in itself: the centerpiece is constructed using 700 meters of steel beams supplied by Group subsidiary Peiner Träger GmbH and resembles the “swallow’s nest” Olympic stadium in Beijing. Arranged around the central hub are a series of individual exhibits and themed displays, including a 13 tonne steel coil from Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH.

One of the highlights of the Salzgitter Group’s appearance is the traditional Customer Day on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 in Pavilion P32. This is an ideal opportunity to enter into direct dialog with customers and partners.

The partner country for this year's Hanover Fair is South Korea. Salzgitter AG continues to maintain a longstanding partnership with Korean steel manufacturer POSCO focusing on research and development. These activities will also be in evidence on the stand. The Salzgitter Group will also be represented at the Job & Career Market in Hall 6, as well as at TectoYou in Pavilion P33. The aim here is to appeal specifically to the younger generation of visitors to the fair as well as young professionals.

Themes, products and exhibits

One of the main exhibits on display is the body shell of a Passat CC, in itself a fine example of a system partnership forged with a customer. The body is built using steel materials supplied by the Salzgitter Group. Volkswagen’s first four-door coupé is built on the company’s PL/PQ 46 platform, the same standard platform used for the already familiar Passat. This is also the first time that Volkswagen has chosen to order materials for a niche model on a project-specific basis.

Salzgitter Flachstahl is proud to have been selected for this vehicle. Salzgitter Flachstahl is providing materials to meet 31 parameters: The roof made of electro-galvanized DC04 grade cold-rolled sheet is just one of many external body shell components. The long, sweeping roofline is a particular design feature of the Passat CC. The company is also producing the material for a variety of structural parts. In addition to soft deep-drawing steels, 60 % of the parameters call for higher-strength steels.

Air-hardening steels are another theme of the Fair. These are ultra-high strength steels that in their as-supplied condition are still soft and easy to form. Once the component has been formed, the material is then hardened to achieve its ultra-high strength.

This makes it possible to shape steels of this extreme strength in ways that were previously out of the question. Consequently, air-hardening steels offer a genuine alternative to aluminum for applications such as automobile manufacturing that necessitate maximum strength in connection with minimum weight.

These steels also offer other characteristics and advantages; they are ideal for laser- and high-frequency-welded tubes and lend themselves superbly well to hydroforming processes.

As a current example of the successful use of air-hardening steels, the new E-Class due on the market in March features integral structural members made entirely of LH®800.