Frame rails, aka subframe rails, for trucks and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) require strength, stiffness, and fatigue resistance: AHSS and UHSS steels provide all that, plus significant lightweighting advantages.
Frame rails made from Docol® AHSS and UHSS steels can improve the strength, stiffness, and durability of delivery vans, pick-up trucks, and other light commercial vehicles, typically defined as vehicles with a gross weight of no more than 3.5 metric tonnes.
Unlike aluminum frame rails – which are vulnerable to sagging and fatigue – frame rails made from AHSS have a much higher modulus of elasticity (stiffness). To achieve additional weight reductions, LCV designers can tailor the thickness of the steel along the length of the frame rail, optimizing AHSS strength where it’s needed. Another option is to run cost/benefit analyses for even stronger steel grades, such as Docol® hot-rolled, cold-formed 1200M.
When Iveco designed its eDaily – a BEV version of its popular Daily van/cab (truck) offering – it needed to significantly improve the strength of its frame rails for the increased weight and safety requirements of the battery electric powertrain. By replacing the existing 3.0 mm HR 420 LA steel with 3.0 mm Docol® HR800HER75, Iveco was able to increase the overall performance of its frame rails. The new frame rails are roll formed, with numerous punched holes along its flanges, taking advantage of excellent cold-forming properties of the Docol® HR800HER75 — which has a typical hole expansion ratio of 75%.
Iveco’s eDaily features 3.0 mm frame rails made from roll-formed Docol® HR800HER75 steel.
Heavy-duty trucks, trailers, and tippers require frame rails in thicker grades: those are available from SSAB’s Strenx® high performance structural steels.
Read about how Volvo will use SSAB Zero™ steel, made with recycled steel and fossil-free energy, for its frame rails in thousands of trucks starting in 2025.
In just one to two weeks, you can get trial samples of most of our commercially available AHSS/UHSS steel grades – plus some of our newest, not-yet-released steels.
Our steel grades serve specific design purposes and are chosen by designers for a wide range of automotive applications.