Development of a DP980 steel with low cooling rate requirement

Abstract

DP980 is a promising light-weightening material in car body. To avoid high investment of strong cooling system, a new DP980 steel with low cooling rate requirement was developed. The mechanical properties and microstructure were analyzed under different manufacturing process. It could be concluded that the chemical composition design should be reasonable and of low cost to achieve both high strength and also austenite to martensite transformation at low cooling rate. Strength increased with coiling temperature decreasing during hot rolling, and higher annealing temperature and lower over aging temperature were favourable to higher strength. The austenite-martensite transforming could be completed at even lower rapid cooling rate of 20°C/s. Through optimized manufacturing process parameters, the new DP steel product with good mechanical properties could be obtained successfully, which provided a new option for normal production line to produce ultra high strength steel.