Boron Extrication An in-depth look into vehicle extrication and rescues involving today's automobiles
The 2013 Ford Focus is packed full of boron and other ultra-high strength steels. But, let’s take a look at the B-pillar and the material it is made from. The B-pillar is made from tailored rolled steel blanks that allow parts to have different thicknesses through one part. The important nugget to take away from this is if a cutter ever stalls during a cut, simply moving the tool up or down an inch or two can allow the cut to be successful.
Colors indicate eight different thicknesses in the B-pillar post of the forthcoming Ford Focus. The right-hand color strip starts with the thinnest sections at the bottom (four shades of blue), rising to two shades of green and then one each of yellow and orange (thickest at 2.7 mm). The eight thicknesses on the Focus B-pillar range from a maximum of 2.7 mm (0.1 in) to as thin as 1.35 mm (0.05 in). The engineering of the shape puts the greatest thicknesses where they are needed for maximum strength in side impacts, and in the case of the B-pillar it’s just above the midpoint (orange area in illustration).
Check out the body structure of the 2012 Ford Focus which is carried over into the 2013 model.
