Phase Transformation and Microstructural Behavior of New Steel Grades for Hot Sheet Stamping

Since the last few years several researches have focused in proposing new approaches to decrease the energy impact of the hot sheet stamping process. Among them, one possibility is to use steel grades characterized by a lower austenitization temperature in order to reduce the heating energy required for the process, but still maintaining the steel quenchability under the investigated process conditions. In the paper, the behaviour of two new steel grades developed by ArcelorMittal and Tecnalia, and devoted to hot stamping is investigated in terms of transformation kinetics and microstructural behaviour. An extensive dilatometric analysis, performed by using a modified axial extensometer, permitted to evaluate the steel kinetics of phase transformation as a function of the applied cooling rate, amount of strain and strain rate. The micro-hardness of water and die quenched samples of the investigated steel grades was measured and their microstructure analyzed by means of optical and scanning electron microscopy to evaluate the characteristics of the formed martensite and the possible phenomenon of autotempering