NanoSteel backs up its ‘stick to steel’ mandate with new AHSS

Aug 22, 2012 | 03:56 PM | Jo Isenberg

After 18 years in the lab and on the launching pad, the investors, entrepreneurs and executive team at the helm of The NanoSteel Company are on the road to Detroit, armed with three classes of new advanced high-strength steel (AHSS) with measured strength/elongation performance of 950MPa/35%, 1,200 MPa/30% and 1,600 MPa/15% respectively. Materials developed by the Rhode Island-based alloy designer are based on newly discovered mechanisms to form nano-structures during production, which eliminate the cause of the brittleness associated with sheet steel made of such microstructures.

The new-breed AHSS is produced using conventional steelmaking processes, does not require the use of exotic alloying elements and is aimed point-blank at the automotive industry, where the material’s inherent ductility is said to allow the cold-forming of component parts, promising major savings.

When Inner Circle spoke to David Paratore, NanoSteel president and chief executive officer, in mid-June, the company was several months away from delivering its first coils for validation. Just over a month later, GM Ventures, a General Motors subsidiary created to invest in promising automotive technologies joined NanoSteel lead shareholder EnerTech Capital and Fairhaven Capital Partners and five existing investors to complete the Series C financing round. Terms of the GM investment were not disclosed but observers were quick to point out that an investment by a major automaker can’t help but be a positive sign for steel as the battle to shed weight and stretch MPG or MPGe heats up.
Inner Circle: Tell us about to NanoSteel Co., its history, its mission, and its strategic objective.....