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Hyundai Steel: Where Your Car Comes From
What do you do if you’re a very big Asian car manufacturer and you want to make sure that the steel that goes into your vehicles is top quality. If you’re Hyundai, you buy and/or create your own steel mill. If you drive a Hyundai or are thinking of buying one, you probably don’t really stop to think about where the steel came from before it became a car, but it’s quite fascinating. According to one particular advertisement, Hyundai get very picky indeed about the steel that goes into their cars and have designed the factory in question to make sure that what you get going into the car in question is steel and nothing but steel.
The process starts off with iron ore and coking coal. Ever wondered where the ore from Australia’s mines ends up? Although a good chunk stays in the country and gets used here, the majority of what comes out of our mines ends up in Asia for manufacturing. Some of the iron ends up at the big Hyundai steel plant in South Korea. The coking coal comes from a range of places, with Australia and New Zealand both doing their bit to keep the supply up. The iron ore goes into a blast furnace and is heated to become liquid metal. During this process, from the moment it leaves the boat, the metal stays in a sealed factory section to make sure that absolutely nothing gets into the molten metal – dust and other bits don’t mix with iron very well and can compromise the integrity of the iron/steel and make it weaker than it would be otherwise. Not that people have only just discovered that metal doesn’t mix with mud – this principle is used as a symbol in the Bible (Daniel 2: 41–43). Hyundai is very proud of its closed loop system where even the raw materials are kept in hermetically sealed chambers to keep out contaminants. The tight sealing has another advantage: contaminants can’t get out of, say, the coking furnace. After it comes out from storage, the iron ore goes through the process of sintering or grinding before it goes into the furnace. At the same time, the coal is coked and transported to the blast furnace. The coke is used to heat the blast furnace, and the iron is melted so the pure iron can be purified and the slag extracted. Now the iron is ready to become steel.
Steel, as you see it in your car, is an alloy of iron. During the steel making process, the unwanted elements that make the metal weaker are whipped out and the elements they do want to make it stronger are added in. At the Hyundai factory, the aim is to make a low-carbon steel (carbon is the principal element that combines with iron to make the alloy known as steel). The steel making process takes about five steps before it is carted off to become sheet metal and, ultimately, Hyundai cars. Of course, there are several more steps between the furnace and the factory floor. Cars aren’t the only thing that Hyundai produces steel for – the sheet metal also gets turned into whitegoods such as fridges and freezers, and ships. It’s kind of ironic (interesting word) that some of that metal that left Australia in the form of iron ore from the mines ultimately comes back in the form of a finished vehicle that will whizz around the streets of Sydney.
Hyundai don’t just work with raw iron ore and coking coal. They also form part of the recycling chain and take steel scrap (e.g. bits of crushed cars, etc.) and turn that into products. But they don’t use recycled steel in the cars, as the quality of the iron/steel may have been compromised. Instead, the recycled steel goes for buildings, bridges, power pylons and the like.
It’s a moot point whether Hyundai should be using more recycled steel in its vehicles. On the one hand, it’s good to know that the company wants to make sure that it only uses the best materials in what it makes so safety isn’t compromised. On the other hand, we all know that iron is a non-renewable resource. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, really. Maybe Hyundai will one day find a way of making sure that its recycled steel is just as good as the virgin steel – I certainly won’t be surprised if they do.
Find out more about the Hyundai steel factory and the process of iron ore becoming cars at the Hyundai steel website: http://www.hyundai-steel.com/ (and select English for the language).
Concepts bubbling on the boil
Some of the concept cars that are sitting-in-waiting are pretty special. Like a spoilt child, there may be some of us that are getting a little impatient and asking the question: when’s this one going to arrive? New designs are getting fruitier and more flavoursome, and it’s exciting to see the flair that is going into these new creations. Take a look.
Alfa Romeo has the exciting new Alfa Romeo 4C on the boil. This looks a little like a Lotus Elise, and certainly has the curves and arches in the right places. Overhang is minimal, so you can bet it’s going to love the corners!
How about the BMW GINA? The surface of the BMW GINA features a new skin that BMW says is highly resistant to expansion. The material is also durable, and flexible. Underneath the exterior is a light aluminium framework which can adjust the cars flexi-skin. Adjustable via electronic and hydraulic controls, the body shape can be reshaped according to the owner’s wishes. Pretty cool.
Chrysler looks to be bringing in a nice new electric-powered 200C concept model. With an interior flamboyance, well-dressed exterior and the Chrysler ENVI (electronic) drivetrain, this is a special medium-to-large size sedan. Certainly, the concept Chrysler 200C may well provide a petrol-powered 200C for production. The EV (Electronic Vehicle) would be awesome if it makes it into production. Best keep our ears to the ground.
Your next Ford Explorer, at least in America, looks a premium machine that has futuristic looks and some excellent features. The concept is also a demonstration platform for Ford’s new EcoBoost family of engines. Powered with EcoBoost engine technology, the smaller engine packs power to match larger engines while achieving 20-30 percent gains in fuel-economy. Range Rover: watch your back!
Jaguar has a beautiful concept car in its line-up. The C-X16 features a next generation touch-screen communications system with supplementary buttons that provide shortcuts to top-level menu functions. Further controls take their inspiration from devices such as smartphones and tablets and provide multimodal functionality. But just check out the car’s sexy lines!
Kia GT is a striking new design on the ranks. It’s a sleek and muscular four-door sports sedan with a rear-wheel drive layout – just the perfect set-up for loads of fun and excitement. A 4690 mm length includes an extended bonnet, little front overhang, powerful rear haunches and a truncated rear end. Power packs a 3.3-litre turbocharged Lambda V6 GDI engine generating 534 Nm. Drive to the rear wheels is via an eight-speed automatic.
A van, but a special multi tasking large van, the Nissan NV2500 concept offers a brand new design plan and forward thinking – including a 3-Zone interior and flexible utility and storage solutions. The NV2500 Concept’s “wall-less” mobile office/workspace design includes a computer workstation, fold-down conference table, numerous storage compartments, cargo/tool tie-down racks, nearly six feet of interior height and an awning-style side panel that opens to create a standing outside workshop table.
Renault has its Alpine A110-50 concept car which I can’t wait till we see it on our roads. Flowing bodywork, half-domed headlamps, a unique 3D rear window, air intakes on each side that echo the ducts on the rear wheel arches and the carbon-fibre bodywork that features a new shade of blue which refreshes and reinterprets the famous original ‘Alpine Blue’ colour. The doors feature a scissor motion. Power is plenty, and comes from the 3.5-litre, 24-valve, 300 kW, V6 engine that is planted in a mid-rear position. Handling promises to be very special.
Whoops, I did it again!
Isn’t it just the worst when you think you’re all sorted, and then bang, you hit the letterbox on the way out the drive or scrape the front air dam at the supermarket? What about the runaway trolley that bumps onto the side of your car; doesn’t that just grate you? However, accidents do happen. What accidents to do with your driving experiences would you be bold enough to fess-up to? What about this one that recently happened in Turkey?
It was a normal day at the office for the forecourt staff at the gas station in Turkey, when, out of the blue, a woman driving a late model Porsche 911 Turbo popped her foot on the wrong pedal. Now we all no how quickly one of these cars can accelerate! She carried on passed the pump and bowled on up to the counter inside the gas station store. The achievement was captured by several security cameras, showing the footage of the white Porsche 997 pulling into the station before suddenly accelerating, crashing into a nearby car and then driving through the store. You can take a look on this video. The footage was posted on the Turkish website Haber365, which was first picked up by Carscoop. The driver of the Porsche and one female passenger were unharmed in the incident, though an employee at the gas station did, unfortunately, suffer some minor injuries which were treated at a local hospital.
Most bumps and dings are more mundane. Mine certainly have been. But you do get a few that are funny. One story I have of my husband. Always fun to share these tales about your nearest and dearest, aren’t they? He was backing off a church lawn, where he dutifully checked in the right wing mirror, then the left wing mirror. There was nothing behind that he could see, so back he went, straight into the oak tree. Oops, he forgot to look in his rear view mirror! Thank goodness for parking sensors and rear parking aids!
And if you think that just because a car has been owned by a respectable vicar with a string of degrees after his name is reliable (which the salesman is quite keen to tell you), think again. Our vicar has had a string of little bumps and dings, including one rather similar to the one in the Turkish video where the gearbox wasn’t in neutral when the accelerator pedal went down during some test at the mechanics.
So what have been your funniest car accidents? Drop us a line and let us know!
Kids And Long Car Trips
We motoring enthusiasts choose our cars for comfort and when it comes time to go on holiday, whether it’s for a long weekend or for a getaway of a week or more, we prefer to take our cars. Load up the family, pack all the gear into the boot, hitch up the caravan and off we go! Now, a long-haul road trip is usually plenty of fun for the driver and those who can appreciate the changing scenery, but what about the younger members of the family? If you fail to keep them amused, eruptions in the back seat are inevitable – which doesn’t make for a very relaxing trip. So what can you do to prevent World War III from breaking out behind you?
For a start, you can position the potential combatants strategically. If you only have two kids and you have an averaged sized sedan such as a Honda Accord, you can stow something in the middle seat to act as a barrier (the esky is a good choice). The barrier can be used as a table for drawing or even for playing cards, but also stops the stupid game that involves squashing one’s sibling when going around a corner or the squabble involving He/She Is Poking Me And Hitting Me. This gets a bit harder with three kids in a sedan, for obvious reasons. If you have a larger MPV with three rows of seats such as a Honda Odyssey or a Mitsubishi Grandis (or a van or a large seven-seater 4×4 or SUV such as a Volvo XC90), you can space the kids out even more and/or put them right at the back where you can’t hear the bickering as much so it won’t drive you nuts. If you are the typical family with mum, dad, three kids and a Toyota Corolla, then allow plenty of breaks and rotate seats – put the non-driving parent between combatants from time to time if this is the only way to preserve peace.
But no matter where you put them, children are less likely to fight and grumble if they are entertained. Vehicles that have a rear seat DVD player are a modern solution; the older method was to hand out books and magazines. While these work a treat on straight roads, they are not so good if the road starts to wind, because if a child – or a non-driving adult – stares at something fixed rather than out the window, they are more likely to get carsick. This is where games like I Spy and audio books are useful, especially the audio books. It is possible to read while on a winding road without getting carsick – you make use of your peripheral vision to keep your brain informed of the movement around you – but this has to be learned. Possibly, the non-driving adult who has learned the trick can read aloud instead of playing an audio book.
Of course, no matter how much you like driving, you’re going to have to stop and have a leg-stretch every so often. The experts tell us that we should be doing this anyway, whether we have kids in the back or not, just so we don’t get fatigued. It’s especially important with kids, who need to burn off energy and get more fractious after long periods of sitting still. They also have smaller bladders, and you don’t really want the upholstery getting unpleasant stains if someone can’t quite hold on that long. Plan your breaks and take advantage of lookouts, short walks, picnic areas and the like. You’re on holiday, after all!
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