Hot stamping steel grades with increased tensile strength and ductility - MBW-K 1900, tribond 1200 and tribond 1400

Abstract

The use of hot formed 22MnB5 steel with an aluminium-silicon (AS) coating is well established for high strength automotive parts to combine weight reduction and passenger safety. Recent developments aim to increase the material strength for further weight saving and to improve the ductility. Especially an improved ductility makes hot formed parts suitable for additional applications, such as parts with higher energy absorption or even axially loaded parts. thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG has developed new hot stamping grades. With an increased strength of about 1900 MPa, the MBW-K 1900 allows the application of even lighter parts compared to 22MnB5. Due to the increased strength level, delayed fracture has to be evaluated. Furthermore, the recommended parameters for processing MBW-K 1900 are regarded. A high crash performance of a material implies a high strength, while the material still shows no cracking during folding or heavy bending of the automotive part. This is the basis for the development of tribond 1200 and tribond 1400. As a new concept for hot stamping, tribond 1200/1400 are composite materials, which bond two outer layers of a ductile 500 MPa steel grade with a high strength 1500 MPa steel core layer. Both grades are already well known as monolithic steels MBW 500 and MBW 1500 for hot stamping. An aluminium-silicon coating allows tribond 1200/1400 to be processed in the same way as AS coated 22MnB5. Nevertheless tribond 1200/1400 show a reduced susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement in the 4-point bending test compared to 22MnB5. By their improved crash behaviour, tribond 1200/1400 enable the manufacturing of more kinds of hot formed parts such as longitudinal beams. An advanced simulation method takes the composite structure of tribond 1200/1400 into account to evaluate the crash behaviour.