Tribological Behavior of Different Tool Steels and Surface Properties under Hot Stamping Conditions

Abstract

Hot stamping is a well-established technology for producing safety relevant components. The use of hot stamped components in modern car bodies offers the possibility of improving the crash performance while reducing the fuel consumption by using thinner sheet thicknesses. Hot stamped components are mainly produced out of the boron-manganese-steel 22MnB5. To avoid oxide scale formation during the heat treatment and the subsequent forming process AlSi coatings are applied on the workpiece surface. Due to the high forming temperatures, the use of lubricants is not suitable for the hot stamping process. Consequently, high friction and severe wear occur during the forming process and affect the resulting quality of hot stamped parts as well as the tool wear. In order to improve the part quality and increase the efficiency of industrial hot stamping applications, measures for reducing the tribological load during the forming have to be found. Within this study, the tool-sided impact on the tribological conditions is analyzed. Three different hot working tool steels were characterized based on strip drawing experiments under hot stamping conditions. Based on these investigations the tool steel characteristics hardness, thermal conductivity as well as chemical composition have been identified as possible influencing factors on the tribological conditions. Furthermore, the influence of the surface finish on the tribological performance was investigated by analyzing tool surfaces with three different roughness values and two PVD coatings. The experiments indicate a significant reduction of friction and wear due to application of PVD coatings while the tool roughness did not affect the tribological behavior under hot stamping conditions.