Breaking through traditional Tesla to develop stainless steel pickup truck

According to foreign media reports, Tesla cybertruck pickup will use a super hard 30x cold-rolled stainless steel to improve strength and corrosion resistance while reducing mold costs. This large-size pickup truck named Tesla cybertruck was released as early as two years ago. However, it has not entered the mass production and delivery status. However, it will be delivered in small batches this year. So recently, some offline sales channels in North America have appeared real cars of Tesla pickup truck. It is really shocking to see real cars offline, Because this Tesla pickup is just out of the ordinary.

The 3mm thick (0.118 in) corrosion resistant steel plate selected by mask for cybertruck is known as "super hard 30x cold rolled stainless steel", which is an alloy variety developed from 300 series stainless steel.

"Tesla's truck's material selection strategy is very interesting," said Dr. David Matlock, an honorary professor at the Colorado Institute of mining's senior steel processing and product research center Matlock speculated that the material "is likely to be an improved version of austenitic 301 alloy". When the alloy system is deformed or cold worked, it will be transformed into microstructure including austenite and martensite, which is the main component of strong and tough metals.

"The more deformation, such as cold rolling, the more martensite is obtained. This helps to significantly increase intensity. " He explained. At present, martensitic high strength steel (non stainless steel) is more and more used in the body structure to improve the strength. But it is usually necessary to achieve its hardness by heating and quenching, just as the pressure quenching steel is commonly used in automobiles. In contrast, the martensite can be produced by cold rolling induced transformation of austenitic stainless steel at room temperature.

However, while Tesla's proprietary 30x alloy stainless steel skin provides cybertruck with industry-leading concave resistance, material specifications and body structure design need to be considered in applications. Cold rolling makes the material very strong, but it sacrifice ductility and formability“ This means that the metal will be limited in terms of processing and forming, "Matlock said. The traditional structure of body control strength, such as A-pillar and B-pillar, generally adopts PHS steel, and cybertruck pickup body adopts 30x alloy stainless steel, which also has high structural strength.

The thickness of the general body steel plate is 0.7-1mm, while the use of 3mm thick stainless steel plate of Tesla cybertruck makes mask claim that "super hard 30x stainless steel" can destroy the press. Tesla offers a new body material solution, regardless of the effect. The scheme reduces the material forming process and saves the cost of stamping machine, die and related process.