Proton does a good job in showing the benefits of using Hot Press Formed steel

Proton is set to officially launch the all-new Persona sedan tomorrow morning and today, they released a well-made video that elaborates on the company’s focus on passenger safety.

The video – embedded in Proton Cars Facebook fan page – lasts just over two minutes and starts with a dramatic shot of a team of fireman scrambling into their truck. “Oh great”, we thought, thinking that the clip will cut to a shot of a crashed Proton. Boring. Well, not so as it turns out.

Eventually the clip moves to the very material of (most) Proton cars – Hot Press Formed (HPF) steel, and its manufacturing process.
[Hot press forming is essentially the process of stamping metal sheet while it is heated as opposed to cold forming, which is the usual practise of shaping metal sheets while the material is cold]

At -1:40, it shows that the high strength carbon steel is heated to 900 deg celcius. At this point, the material is called Austenite steel; and a cold stamping mold with a temperature of 4 deg celcius quickly cools it down in a process called ‘quenching’, turning it into much tougher Martensite steel. Thus, the original cold steel with a stress strength of 300 megamascal (MPa) increases to 1500 MPa.

This is then mostly used to form a Proton car passenger cell, giving it increased structural strength without any weight penalty.

At -1:06, it also shows the assembly of the curtain airbags.

At -0:58 however, things get even more visual. The fireman from the first scene starts to test the strength of the HPF steel compared to regular carbon steel. The three tests include hitting a component with a sledgehammer; cutting the component using a circular saw; and cutting it using the Jaws of Life. No surprises here – it takes more time for these trained professionals to cut the HPF component compared to normal carbon steel.

Come -0:14, you (briefly) get to see the Persona during its safety crash test.

Enough, have a look yourself.