A steel product is useless no matter how good its performance is if it makes no economic sense or provides no value for customers. POSCO goes one step further from the manufacturing of premium steel products for automotives to supporting customers in finding new ways of using steel.
Automotive Early Vendor Involvement(EVI) provides technical support for customers regarding steel features and their use when they develop new cars. An EVI activity is composed of four steps according to new car development processes.
01. Planning
Planning is a step to decide the concept, design and steel material of the car. Various information on the initial concept design including material properties and teardown result (parts analysis after disassembly) can be provided.
02. Design
Design is a step to confirm the design of the parts and steel type to be applied. In this step, a numerical simulation with respect to collision safety, structural integrity and formability can be conducted to suggest the final design concept and applicable steel to the client.
03. Build
Build is a step to manufacture the car prior to mass production. A variety of guidelines for the reduction of forming defect or improvement of weldability is developed based on experimental results. They may be applied to vehicle manufacturing to minimize trial and error.
04. Evaluation
Evaluation is a step to evaluate the manufactured parts and cars. Evaluation based on a numerical technique for durability, structural stiffness and crash performance can be provided. In addition, it is possible to support the evaluation technology of corrosion and coating for part or assembly unit.