Sunday, July 17, 2016

Is There A Need For New Steels?

Hi: Price of gas down to much lower levels. However, that appears to be a sham because now that this price of gas is much more favorable, the States want to increase the cost again through taxation. Obviously there is a continual need for maintenance on the roads,  especially bridges. However, life for these things is at least 30 years and funds were established long ago, by those with vision, to maintain the assets that were constructed. Why then now are we running out of these funds and why a need for a tax increase to pay for what we have already planned for? Well that is politics, and we do not participate in that game.
However, we do have an interest in materials and materials include steel. In fact, when life was more sane, steel was the name of the game. If you wanted to get lofty and fly, then a much more expensive aluminum came into play, because of its low density.
I haven't counted the number of the steels that we have in inventory now, but I would guess a number somewhere in the thousands, including all modifications. Therefore, the question, why is the automotive industry in need of new steels? Well, these days , we can't leave politics out. In addition although fuel, called gas, was great because it provided additional freedom to go farther and see places and things that we only read about. Now, too much of a good things brings problems such as exhaust problems causing bad things such as smog and other related issues.
Well, what is the problem? Aha, it is the steels. They are much too heavy, causing us to use too much gas. Gas isn't bad; steels are.Therefore, let us get rid of those nasty steels that we have used all these years. After all, we have the greatest innovators that were ever born, and in addition we have computers that can remember all this. After all, why should we need to think about this.
Ah, but there is a solution at hand. My gosh, we have been using aluminum all these years to build gadgets that fly and we have been very innovative here. Why not get rid of those nasty steels and use aluminum. Cost, no problem. We will save the cost by saving on gasoline usage. Wow, two problems fixed. 
But how about safety/ After all steels are much stronger and therefore when road rage catches up to us and we get in an accident what bad is going to happen? Not to worry, our modern day engineers can resolve this with the aid of their trusty computer. Problem resolved.
However, we now return to the land of reality. We have a billion dollar industry in existence that has resolved our materials problems for years. Stainless steels evolved from a need to combat corrosion, Tool steels were developed to permit us to machine more and more materials, including steels,  that were harder, more complex and required closer tolerances. In fact there is a family of steels that are called superallys and these, at least in this country, evolved from the evolution of stainless steels.
Well, the steel industry is once again challenged to come up with a new family of steels that can resolve the issue of high cost gasoline plus tax, How can the industry accomplish this need? Well, current thinking is to improve the modulus of elasticity and if possible, decrease the density.  MagnaTech has some ideas regarding this area of opportunity, to resolve some of the current problems. We are currently creating a proposal to accomplish some of these objectives and are interested in partners to share the solution to this current problem. If you are interested, please contact us. We are innovators not producers, and therefore, there could be good profit for you as a manufacturer of what we can innovate. Call or email us at your convenience.Thank you.