TPi September 2018

Products & developments

Benteler at Tube 2018: lighter cars, safer pedestrians and smarter tube connections

Benteler presented itself as a partner in technology at the Tube trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, demonstrating solutions for the automotive, energy and hydraulic industries. The company offers everything from one source, from material development, through tube production, to a global sales and logistics network. Benteler develops and produces tubes and component solutions made of tube for the future of mobility, targeting four key trends of the automotive industry: lightweight construction, CO 2 reduction, safety, and cost efficiency. “We make our customers’ components lighter, for instance by replacing solid material springs in the chassis with spring tubes. This reduces component weight by up to 40 per cent,” explained Christian Wiethuechter, chief sales and operations officer at Benteler Steel/ Tube. Anti-roll bars for the chassis of cars have generally been manufactured from solid steel rods. To reduce weight, they are now increasingly made of tubes. These are approximately 40 per cent lighter, making them a crucial component of lightweight solutions in automotive construction. Benteler’s new varID ® tubes have a variable internal diameter for chassis

Benteler presented solutions for the automotive, energy and hydraulic industries

The company has also developed a new high-strength steel for hydraulic line systems. The HPL500 steel grade has a long service life, and its improved mechanical properties reduce weight, while customers get an efficient hydraulic system that can withstand particularly high pressure. With its new PreFiS press-fitting system, Benteler has developed a solution for strong tube connections that requires no welding and takes only a few seconds. The metal-to-metal press fitting seal components for connecting tubes are most frequently used in fire extinguishing systems or coating lines. “In these areas, our customers work in very small spaces. Our new press tools make pressing even easier,” stated Thomas Müller, sales manager of the PreFiS team. Benteler operates from 153 locations in 40 countries, and specialises in the areas of automotive, steel/tube, energy and distribution. The company has been run as a family business for 140 years and is in its fourth generation of family ownership. Benteler International AG – Austria www.benteler.com

anti-roll bars. “They are ideal for the compensation of local forces in a car,” said Dr Thorsten Andres, vice president development at Benteler Steel/Tube. “A special tube drawing process, which adapts the tube wall thickness in areas subject to severe stress, makes all of this possible. This reduces weight by another 15 per cent. As a result, cars are lighter, fuel consumption is lower and so is environmental impact.”

Christian Wiethuechter, Benteler Steel/Tube’s chief sales and operations officer

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TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL September 2018

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