Photo: @MinimalDuck/Twitter
Like with SpaceX’s Starship, Tesla Cybertruck can be created from steel. The corporate has patented ultra-hard cold-worked steel alloy for the production of its electric pickup truck.
Tesla Cybertruck can be created from a chrome steel alloy, the identical material that can be used for the outside shell of the SpaceX Starship rocket. Which means that its exterior shell can be really proof against damage and corrosion, and is not going to require paint.
“It’s, it’s literally bulletproof to a nine-millimeter handgun. That is how strong the skin is—it’s ultra-hard, cold-rolled stainless-steel alloy that we have developed. We’re going to be using the identical alloy within the Starship rocket, and within the Cybertruck,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk through the pickup’s unveiling in 2019.
Nevertheless, for the production of Cybertruck, Tesla will use a special steel alloy. On February 23, 2023, the “Ultra-hard cold-worked steel alloy” patent was published, which reveals more details about it. The patent describes a steel alloy with improved hardness and corrosion resistance for high-performance applications.
Tesla explained that there are numerous “stainless” steels that resist corrosion including a family of commercially produced “3xx” series stainless-steel alloys. Essentially the most common of those alloys are 301, 304/304L, and 316/316L, and are commonly produced in quite a lot of product forms. There are also other stainless-steel products which are differentiated based upon their microstructure and approach to strength: Austenitic (3xx series), Martensitic (4xx series), Ferritic, Duplex, and precipitation hardenable (PH).
Martensitic steels typically require controlled heat treatments and hardening cycles to extend hardness. Nevertheless, such additional treatments increase the associated fee of the alloy, require expensive equipment, and will cause warpage of the goal product depending upon product form. As well as, corrosion resistant martensitic steels typically contain a comparatively great amount of costly cobalt for corrosion resistance, which increases the associated fee of using martensitic alloys.
Tesla describes several compositions of steel alloy and different methods of processing it to realize the specified result. Meanwhile, it’s clearly indicated that the outside a part of the automotive body will be produced from such an alloy, which doesn’t require any additional treatment to guard against corrosion.
“Embodiments relate to ‘cold-worked’ (e.g., cold-rolled) steel alloys with improved strength, hardness and corrosion resistance useful for creating products, reminiscent of exterior vehicle body components. Such cold-worked steel alloys may allow the outside facing vehicle body components to be proof against denting, scratching, and pitting while avoiding the necessity for a corrosion protective agent (e.g., paint) over the outside vehicle body components. Cold working (e.g., cold-rolling) strengthens the disclosed steel alloy partially on account of strain-induced martensitic phase transformation of the austenitic matrix, which imparts improved hardness and strength for scratch and dent resistance. Advantageously, the phase transformation of the disclosed steel alloy was found to have increased hardness and strength while maintaining corrosion resistance.”
© 2023, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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