Engineers continue to improve the properties of metals and evolve manufacturing technologies to enable metals to maintain, or achieve more of, a competitive presence in vehicles.
     by Jean L. Broge, Assistant Editor

Metals in the automotive industry are like siblings in an extended family. Someone always seems to be getting the attention someone else wants. The different metal industries have been battling it out for years, and will continue to do so as they come to terms with the unavoidable fact that they will simply have to coexist.

• The emergence of high-strength steel
• Lighter steel suspensions
• Twistbeam design
• Strut and link design
• Double-wishbone design
• Multi-link suspension design
• Lotus' unique suspension
• Lighter steel doors
• HSS sheet for chassis parts
• The aluminum angle
• New aluminum processes
• The magnesium market
• Copper's comeback?