Baosteel plates successfully applied into auto engine kernel

Lately good news came from GMNA(General Motor North America): The newly developed automatic six-speed hydraulic transmission has passed the road test. The core part made of friction plates were supplied by Baosteel. It means Baosteel has possessed the synchronous research and manufacturing capability as the world renowned automobile companies do, which also symbolizes the breakthrough of Baosteel??s automotive plates covering the external auto-body plates and internal core parts.

The development of automotive industry requires the steel products with: "Better safety, Higher Strength, Lighter weight and More Corrosion -Resistant", especially for the properties of the auto engine materials. In 2002, GMNA started the research and development of the new generation automatic six-speed transmission.

The transmission has small size, light weight and complex structure, which integrates the most advanced technology of the international automotive industry today. The friction plate is the most important part in the automatic shifted transmission structure which has high requirements on the hardness, roughness, thickness accuracy and angularity etc.

of the steel products. At present, the friction plate can not be produced in domestic companies, and only few famous steel-making companies in Germany and Japan etc. can produce the friction plate.

Baosteel Business Development Xin Ran Co., Ltd. has taken full advantage of Baosteel brand and the channel between itself and high-end users. Last year, Baosteel won the friction plate project, and pooled the good resources from Baosteel R&D Center, Manufacturing Department of Baosteel Branch, Cold Rolling Plant and Sales center for it.

Relying on the experience from automotive plate research and development over many years, Baosteel not only broke the technical barrier, but also completed the trial manufacture even under the condition of exceeding the design limit of rolling mill. Recently, the friction plates of three specifications demanded by GM have succeeded in trial manufacture, of which the hard rolled 2.

9 mm plate has received the recognition from the high-end customers such as GMNA, etc.

It is reported that the new generation automatic six-speed hydraulic transmission will be launched on the market in 2008. As the compulsory upgrading products, the transmission will replace the original four-speed transmission gradually. According to the substitution schedule from GMNA, the annual quantity of friction plates supplied by Baosteel in the next several years will exceed 1 million sets.