Hot Stamping is a key technology to improve structural parts safety and reducing weight in vehicles. These two elements are crucial in India, the fourth market in world vehicle production. For this reason, Gestamp displayed at the Auto Expo 2020 its Hot stamping solutions focused on producing safer and lighter cars. The company participated for the first time in one of the largest fairs in the automotive industry, and the most important one in India.
At the fair, Gestamp showed components focused on hot stamping, the technology in which the Group is a global leader, with more than 90 lines worldwide.
Hot stamping allows Gestamp to increase the safety of structural components of vehicles. This approach coincides with the application in India of new regulations for vehicle safety consistent with UN standards. Gestamp incorporated hot stamping technology in India in 2017 with a plant in the Pune area.
This technology is perfectly suited to meet the demands of contemporary automotive manufacturers, especially in terms of adopting regulations pertaining to crash tests, improved fuel economy, emissions norms and NCAP ratings.
In addition, the weight savings it provides in vehicles bring about improvements in fuel economy in the face of increasingly stringent emissions standards worldwide.
Road safety and its importance in India
Traffic accidents in India cause hundreds of deaths every year. Specifically, in India, according to data from the World Health Organization, 22 out of 100,000 people die in traffic accidents every year, compared to 4 out of 100,000 in Spain.
In 2015, the Government of India announced the implementation of new regulations for vehicle safety consistent with UN standards. In this way, vehicle safety has become an increasing focus in this country, with a growing awareness of the need to bring safety standards closer to the Europeans ones.
The combination of new regulations and this greater awareness of the importance of safety at the wheel is increasing the demand for key safety elements in vehicles, such as the structural components that Gestamp manufactures in hot stamping.
Prevention is of great relevance when it comes to reducing the high mortality rates on the roads. Thus, the passive safety to which Gestamp contributes with its products is of capital importance.
Of all the safety elements in cars, the architecture of the vehicle itself and its Body-in-White structure play a key role, due to the protection it provides to the passengers in case of an accident.