Conference series & scope

HOT FORMING OF HIGHPERFORMANCE MATERIALS – A KEY TECHNOLOGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The utilization of high-performance materials to push the boundaries for product performance and simultaneously meet increasing environmental demands is a wellknown strategy. The automotive industry is a good example where implementation of high-strength steels has significantly contributed to enhanced crashworthiness and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Producing components from high-performance materials is a challenge where thermo- mechanical forming processes offers a solution. Hot forming is a key technology to realize components with complex shapes and high strength. Besides well-established processes such as press hardening of boron steels, advanced derivatives including light alloys forming, tailoring of mechanical properties in the same components or forming of hybrid metal-composite materials are also on the market. Automotive is still leading the innovation, now addressing the challenges of electromobility, but the technology is penetrating in other sectors.

The ongoing global transition to sustainable use of resources and development of energy efficient production processes is also affecting the hot forming industry. While being the solution to these challenges for some industries, the hot forming industry will also face its own challenges to meet and contribute to the global sustainability goals. Improving efficiency in heating technology and minimizing scrap are examples of such challenges that need to be addressed. The introduction of fossil- free steels will also present new technological challenges. In order to shift to a higher degree of circularity, producing components with extended use-phase is an important direction as well as increasing the recyclability of materials with traceability to ensure that the novel and fossil-free materials remains in the loop.