The social demands to performance and function of automobile have been become strict, that is, natural resource saving, energy saving, countermeasures for environmental pollution and driving safety have been highlighted from the viewpoint of global environment. In order to solve these problems newly-developed materials as the following have been applied to autobody parts; high strength steel sheets for weight reduction and ensuring safety, aluminum alloy sheets for weight lightening, coated steel sheets for improvement of anti-corrosion and steel-plastic sandwiched sheets for weight reduction and vibration-damping. The practical application of these materials to autobody increased year by year in Japan. The forming characteristics of these materials are, nevertheless, generally inferior to those of such a conventional material as mild steel. In this report the authors introduce the present status of the application of these materials to autobody parts and discuss the problems on forming these materials from the point of material characteristics and forming techniques.
