ArcelorMittal Europe (Montataire, France)

Dunand M., CTS Technical Director

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (Duisburg, Germany)

Heidtmann U., CTS Senior Manager

Tata Steel Europe (Ijmuiden, Netherlands)

Wilcke M., CTS Manager

E-mail (common): imarc.velten@bfi.de

Isolated defects may create serious disturbances and costs in the car manufacturing process, but a guarantee of zero surface defects is currently impossible for steel strip products. A solution to indicate reliably their position will be a win-win approach for customer and supplier. The three European major steel companies, ArcelorMittal Europe, Tata Steel Europe and ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe have combined their efforts providing such a solution by developing an open defect tracking standard using 1-D barcodes printed on the strip. This new service is expected to be available in the near future. The automotive philosophy, of not sending defects further up the supply chain, still stands due to the fact that steel suppliers can now reach a better ppm rate on an average yearly supplied volume, and the singular defects that were already in the coil remain in the coil. They just do not disturb the customer’s processes any more. The advantages for steel suppliers are: better hit rate in correct and less repairing, no secondary defects by cutting out the primary defect, repairing coils all over the world in exactly the same manner, reliable product quality level especially for automotive outer panel supply customers, fulfi lling fi nal needs of the automotive customers approaching zero defect at the pressed part and fi nally higher level of customer satisfaction. The advantages for the custo mers are: more transparency on the coil quality, less inspection required after pressing, less handling of parts after pressing, higher level of trust that the coil is of the right quality approaching zero defect in the press shop, increased press shop yield, better hit rate in coil weight and amount of welds. The target of the consortium is to reach a level of acceptance of the system as wide as possible in the market in order to support the potential value creation in the auto-motive market.