Toyota Motor North America has joined the Auto/Steel Partnership (A/SP). Formed in 1987, A/SP leverages the resources of the automotive and steel industries to pursue research, validation and education that have helped automakers enhance vehicle safety and fuel economy while improving design and manufacturing.

The Auto/Steel Partnership’s ongoing mission is to achieve sustainable automotive solutions by collaboration on the intellectual and technical resources of the automotive, steel and related industries, the inherent high-performance characteristics of steel and innovations in design optimization and manufacturing technologies.

Auto/Steel Partnership is a consortium of steel mills including members of the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Automotive Applications Council; General Motors Company; Stellantis; Toyota and tier one affiliates. Members of the partnership leverage shared research in a pre-competitive environment as they work together to identify industrial solutions.

The A/SP agenda is based upon a technology roadmap which informs research project prioritization and resource allocation. More than 30 projects are currently underway across 8 project teams:

• AHSS Stamping
• Stamping Tooling Optimization
• Constitutive & Fracture Modeling
• Joining
• Steel Testing & Harmonization
• Repairability
• Gas Metal Arc Welding of AHSS
• AHSS Corrosion Protection

Three focal projects lead the A/SP research agenda.

• LME of 3^rd Gen AHSS – Industrial Welding Solutions
• 3^rd Gen AHSS Press Tonnage Predictions
• Spring Back Prediction, Control and Validation