Design of thermomechanical treatment of high strength steels

Abstract

Abstract Reducing the level of COx and NOx emissions from combustion engines is an important goal in the automotive industry. One way to reduce the emissions is to use lightweight parts in the car construction. High-strength steels are one of the successful choices for body parts. Their strengthening mechanisms provide them with better mechanical properties, which translates into thinner sheet metal blanks and ultimately reduced weight of parts. The main strengthening mechanisms include TRIP (TRansformed Induced Plasticity) and TWIP (TWinning induced plasticity). This paper outlines processing of high-strength steels, from forging to round bars and heat treatment to determination of phase transformations and temperature profiles for thermomechanical processing in an innovative tool. The experimental materials contained manganese, silicon and different aluminium levels. Their compositions were selected with a goal to observe the properties of advanced multiphase high strength steels during processing.