McMaster researchers get $1.2M to create stronger, lighter steel

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Researchers at McMaster University are hoping to develop stronger and lighter steel in the years ahead, and the faculty of engineering and science has been given more than $1.2 million in funding to work on that goal.

Graduate students will work with a team of professors and then the steel industry to produce a better next generation of steel. They’ll be looking specifically at the auto sector.

They’ll study car crumple zones. That’s where the outside of the car – made from softer steel than the inner portion – absorbs the impact of the crash, hopefully protecting the people inside.

Associate dean of engineering Ken Coley says the project has environmental benefits too. “If you can make the vehicles lighter, you save fuel. About 10 per cent reduction in weight of a vehicle translates to about 8 per cent reduction of fuel, and reduction in fuel means reduction in greenhouse gasses, so that’s really the big push for this.”

The money is from the natural sciences and engineering research council. Their mandate is to lead projects that merge research discoveries and industry.