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Improved safety standards and reduced automotive body-in-white weight have led to a strong interest in martensitic press hardening steel (PHS). As the sensitivity to hydrogen embrittlement of martensite increases at higher strength level, the very small uptake of diffusible hydrogen by aluminized PHS during the austenitization stage of the hot press forming process is of concern. The hydrogen uptake was found to reduce the plasticity of the PHS considerably. The PHS with a higher strength was more susceptible to hydrogen-induced brittle fracture. The present work reports that vanadium additions, which serve to trap the hydrogen, considerably reduce the negative impact of the hydrogen uptake in aluminized 1800 MPa and 2000 MPa PHSs. The contribution also proposes a mechanism for the uptake of hydrogen during the processing of aluminized PHS.

The use of press hardening steel (PHS) in structural safety-related parts has experienced a rapid growth in the automotive industry, due to increased passenger safety standards, which require an improved vehicle intrusion resistance. Very small concentrations of diffusible hydrogen in ultra-high strength PHS deteriorate their mechanical properties. The focus of the present study was the analysis of the diffusible hydrogen uptake during the hot press forming process of the aluminized PHS and its impact on the mechanical properties of PHS. The effect of the paint baking on the properties of aluminized PHS was also evaluated by mechanical testing and hydrogen thermal desorption analysis. A mechanism for the hydrogen absorption of aluminized PHS was proposed.

The hydrogen-facilitated anodic dissolution of steel is an interesting experimental phenomenon, but the persistent gaps in this knowledge area are great. The changes in the Tafel slopes and the reaction rates of steel that has been cathodically charged with hydrogen are interpreted mainly in the context of hydrogen trapping and de-trapping behaviors of steel using a variety of electrochemical methods. This study reveals that the increase in the anodic current density and the decrease in the polarization resistance are attributed primarily to the hydrogen-induced lattice expansion. Based on the Tafel-slope change, the oxidation of hydrogen cation partly contributed to the increase in the total anodic current density together with the dominant anodic reaction of the steel dissolution. The electrochemical permeation measurements showed much slower effusion kinetics of the hydrogen that has been trapped at the e-carbide particles, and the trapping and de-trapping behavior at the fine particles are one of the controlling factors of the hydrogen-enhanced anodic dissolution of steel. From an engineering aspect, it is believed that the current study will provide an important insight into future perspectives on stress corrosion cracking failure occurring in various high-strength steels.

Various rapid heating methods have been developed to increase the productivity of press hardening steel. One of these methods is direct resistance Joule heating. This heating method results in the melting of the surface coating and the formation of a persistent liquid trail as a result of the high thermal conductivity and low melting temperature of the Al-10 pct Si alloy coating. This can be addressed by an alloying preheating treatment prior to the press hardening process.

The surface alloying of 55 wt.% Al–Zn coated press hardening steel during a press hardening heat treatment was evaluated. Austenitization resulted in the formation of a surface layer containing FeAl and Fe2Al5. The use of an increased heating rate during the austenitization cycle resulted in a high volume fraction of Zn at FeAl grain boundaries, and the presence of Zn islands in Fe2Al5 grains. These microstructural features suppressed the high temperature oxidation and evaporation of Zn. Zn was found to provide a pronounced cathodic protection, and the alloyed coating did not cause liquid metal induced embrittlement.

In the present study, the aluminized 22MnB5 Hot Press Forming (HPF) steel was deformed isothermally in the temperature range of 600–800 °C. The specimens were deformed with 0%, 10% and 30% engineering strain at a strain rate of 0.5/s. Mechanical stabilization of austenite during phase transformation was observed. The influence of strain rate was also studied. It was found that the martensite transformation was affected by the combined effect of mechanical stabilization and dynamic recovery. The influence of high temperature deformation on the final microstructure, microhardness and mechanical properties were studied. Deformation applied below 750 °C resulted in a significant decrease of the strength and the hardness. The ferrite fraction and morphology had a clear effect on the room temperature tensile fracture morphology.

The effect of nano-sized precipitates on the mechanical properties of boron-added low-carbon steels was studied by neutron scattering techniques such as powder diffraction, small-angle scattering and particle tracking autography., Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron powder diffraction (ND) techniques were used to study quantitatively the effect of nano-sized precipitates and boron addition on the mechanical properties of low-carbon steels. SANS was used to evaluate nano-sized precipitates, smaller than about 600 Å in diameter, and ND was used to determine the weight fraction of the cementite precipitates. Fine core–shell structured spherical precipitates with an average radius of ~50 Å, such as MnS and/or CuS, surrounded by BN layers were observed in the boron-added (BA) low-carbon steels; fine spherical precipitates with an average radius of ~48 Å were mainly observed in the boron-free (BF) low-carbon steels. In the BA steels, the number of boron precipitates, such as BN, Fe3(C,B) and MnS, surrounded by BN layers increased drastically at higher hot-rolling temperatures. The volume fraction of the fine precipitates of the BA steels was higher than that of the BF steels; this difference is related to the rapid growth of the BN layers on the MnS and CuS precipitates. Boron addition to low-carbon steels resulted in a reduction in strength and an improvement in elongation; this behaviour is related to the reduction of the solute carbon and the nitrogen contents in the ferrite matrix caused by the precipitation of BN, as well by the increase in the volume fraction of the cementites.

The effect of Si on phase transformation was well known in dual phase steels. Si promoted the ferrite transformation and the enriched C in untransformed austenite prohibited the transformation at intermediate temperature range resulting in the formation of lower bainite and martensite at low temperature range. In addition, during continuous cooling with fast cooling rate, it was very hard to differentiate one phase from the others. In order to clarify the effects of Si on the austenite-to-ferrite transformation quantitatively, the start temperatures of bainite(BS) and martensite(MS) as well as ferrite(Ae3) and pearlite(Ae1) were calculated by thermodynamic analysis. LVDT measured by dilatometer and 1st differentiation peaks of LVDT were examined with microstructures, which gives a possibility of the phase separation. In CCT diagrams, it was also found that large austenite grain size(AGS) widened the gap between the transformation start(Ts) and end(Tf) when Si was added.

The effect of cooling on the mechanical properties of hot-rolled high strength steels was investigated in order to improve the stretch-flangeability of conventional TS 590 MPa grade for the automotive parts through laboratory simulation and mill-scale production. The low temperature coiling method using a 3-step controlled cooling pattern after hot rolling was very effective for producing Nb-bearing high strength steel with high stretch- flangeability. It was suggested that the suppressed precipitation of grain boundary cementites and the decreased hardness difference between the ferrite matrix and bainite phases cause the excellent stretch-flangeability of ferrite-bainite duplex microstructure steel. Therefore, the formation and propagation of microcracks were suppressed relative to conventional HSLA steel with the ferrite and pearlite microstructure. In addition, the elongation improved compared with that of hot-rolled steel sheets using the conventional early cooling pattern because the volume fraction of polygonal ferrite increased.