High Strength Steels For Automobiles

By Prof. D. K. Mondal NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DURGAPUR

Property requirements and controlling factors of various vehicle parts

Parts Panel Rigidity Outer Panels Inner panels Door outer, etc. Floor, etc. Front rail, rear pillar, etc. Structural parts Front side member, side sill, etc. Door reinforcement, etc. Underbody parts Controlling factors Suspension arm, disc wheel, etc. Youngs Modulus Yield Strength Properties Dent Member Resistance Rigidity Youngs Modulus Ultimate Tensile Strength Ultimate Tensile Strength Fatigue Strength Crash Strength

Classes of Steel Strength for different members

Members Exposed panels Classes 340 MPa class

Structural members (pillars and other) Reinforcement

Chassis

440-550 MPa class Ultra high strength steel>1000MPa class

490-590 MPa class

Steel sheets for automobiles are generally press formed between the punch and die after blanking to obtain final components. The press formability can be classified into four modes of deformation. a) Deep drawing b) Stretching c) Stretch flanging d) Bending

 In deep drawing, the flange part is required to reduce its volume. Shrinking is essential for this part. This type of deformation is represented by the Limiting Draw Ratio (a ratio between the maximum disk radius and the radius of a cylindrical cup to which the disc can be drawn successfully). LDR is interrelated with the plastic anisotropy, r-value (a ratio between true strain in width direction and true strain in thickness direction, W/t) of a steel sheet. Steels with good r-value must have low carbon and microalloyed with Ti and Nb to arrest any individual carbon and nitrogen atom. In fact, it is difficult to improve r-value in high strength steels (TS>500MPa).

 Stretching is represented by Limiting Dome height. LDH is interrelated with ductility (UE). Since large r-value is impossible in high strength steel, stretching or ductility is an important index of press formability of high strength steels. Stretch flangeability is evaluated by the hole expansion ratio [= 100 x (d-d0)/d0], which, in turn, depends on the local ductility and uniformity in microstructure. Bendability is also interpreted similar to stretch flangeability.

High strength steel sheets for panels Panels are formed by deep drawing Interstitial Free (IF) steels which are ultra low-carbon and microalloyed with Ti and Nb. Extremely formable steel sheet has r=2.5 and work hardening coefficient n=0.27. ( = kn, ln=lnk+nln). High r-value is obtained by grain refinement of ferrite through: a) High reduction hot rolling at low temperature followed by fast cooling, and b) High reduction cold rolling followed by recrystallization annealing.

High bake hardenable (BH) steel sheet Exposed panels are required to have rigidity and dent resistance. Increase in YS can improve dent resistance, but it is necessary to maintain YS below 240MPa to make press-forming easy. So BH steels have been developed that are characterised by low YS before press forming. However, once deep-drawn, then coated with paint and subjected to a bake heat treatment at 1700C for 20 min, it is found that BH parts have a YS that increased considerably, thus giving them good dent resistance.

High strength steel sheets with excellent deep drawability for outer panels: (i) High strength steels (YS440MPa) with good press formability and TE=38%, n-value=0.24, r-value=1.95 have been developed by solid solution hardening Nb-Ti bearing ultra low carbon steel containing P, Mn and Si. (ii) A high r-value (1.9), high strength (YS590MPa) steel sheet has been developed by strengthening Ti-bearing IF steel by cold rolling and annealing, with copper precipitation through successive heat treatment at ~6000C

High strength steels for structural parts and reinforcement Many Structural parts are used to protect passengers in case of a car crash. These parts secure a survival space for passengers on a frontal collision by absorbing energy through buckling and bending of parts. In case of side collision, the plastic deformation of parts reduces the passenger survival space. Therefore, structural parts should be as rigid as possible to minimize thrust into the cabin.

Highly ductile multiphase steel sheets Structural parts, expected to absorb energy on collision, are required to have good formability. Stretchability, which corresponds to ductility, plays an important role for high strength steels in press-forming. Suitable steels are: 1) Galvanised Dualphase (ferrite + martensite microstructure) steel sheets, and 2) Low alloy TRIP (Transformation Induced Plasticity containing ferrite + bainite + residual austenite) type multiphase steel. Both the steels exhibit high work hardenability throughout the range of strain, and thus shows a good stretchability.

Ultra high strength steel sheets 1. For bumper reinforcement and components facing side crash, ultra high strength steel sheets with TS of 980 MPa or more are applied. Not only elongation (ductility) but also bendability and stretch flangeability are important factors of formability. 2. Cold rolled DP steels with TS up to 1180MPa are also in use. Mixed microstructure is effective to improve elongation. Whereas, homogeneity of microstructure is needed to improve the bendability.

High strength steel sheets for chasis Characterics: High fatigure strength, corrosion resistance, panel rigidity. Usually hot rolled because of thicker ganges. Highly ductile hot rolled high strength steel sheets: Low alloy TRIP steel hot rolled cooled coiled at 4000C, allowing bainite transformation proceed to stabilise austenite. Because of mixed microstrure, it has inferior stretch-flangeability. However, stretch flangeability can be improved by controlling chemical composition and microstructure of the steel.

High burring hot rolled steel sheets High strength steel sheets with enhanced stretch flangability. They are obtained by controlling the microstructure to ferrite+bainit or bainite only. High burring steels with 590MPa in TS and keeping comentite particles as refined as possible. Low carbon high strength steel sheets (780MPa class) with high stretch flangeability.

High strength steel sheets with good weldability When arc welding is used to join high strength sheets, strength could be reduced by softening at HAZ. So, antisoftening agents Moand Nb are added which form (Nb, Mo) C complex precipitates and interact with dislocations preventing their annihilation.

High fatigue strength steel sheets Underbody structural parts including wheel discs and suspension arms are required to have high fatigue strength. DP steels with mixed microstructure of ferrite and finaly dispered martensite islands exhibit high fatigue strength (cyclic Y.S). They should have good combination of ductility and fatigue strength by decreasing the bulky bainite content and abnormal mixture of fine and coarse grains near the surface of the sheet. Low alloy TRIP steels also show high fatigue strength due to solid solution hardening of ferrite and also due to compressive stresses introduced by the expansion following austenite martensite trasformation during cyclic loading. Steels with copper in solid solution also provides very high fatigue limit ratio (fatigue strength / TS).