[Ferro-Alloys.com] AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) announced today that it has accepted an award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) Program.

Researchers from AK Steel plan to work in collaboration with DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop microstructure-based transformation models to predict austenite stability in high strength steels in a project titled “Thermo-Mechanical Forming Process Development to Produce Tailored Strength Automotive Structural Components.”  The project will be funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Vehicle Technologies Office.

“AK Steel is proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with the DOE and the HPC4Mtls Program to develop mathematical models that could enable the production of automotive components with properties tailored to meet the demanding performance requirements of the future,” said Roger K. Newport, Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel.  “This is another outstanding example of the important work and collaboration of our AK Steel experts to drive continued innovation in steelmaking.”

This is the fourth recent award AK Steel has received from EERE to support innovative steel research. The three earlier awards were funded by EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.  The first, awarded in 2017, focused on manufacturing new steels that provide increased efficiency in high-frequency electric motors, and a second award in 2018 focused on low density steels that could ultimately be used in automotive structural applications.  The third, awarded earlier this year, focused on leveraging high performance computing from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for hot rolling steel research.  All four awards underscore AK Steel’s innovation and commitment to being a leader in next generation steel product and process development.

AK Steel
AK Steel is a leading producer of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, primarily for the automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing, including electrical power, and distributors and converters markets.  Through its subsidiaries, the company also provides customer solutions with carbon and stainless steel tubing products, die design and tooling, and hot- and cold-stamped components.  Headquartered in West Chester, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati), the company has approximately 9,500 employees at manufacturing operations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and facilities in Western Europe.

• [Editor:kangmingfei]