ADVANCES IN HIGH STRENGTH

STEELS
FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

Shrikant P. Bhat
Automotive Product Applications
ArcelorMittal Global R&D – East Chicago

www.autosteel.org
 Presentation Outline

• Introduction
- Material Choice in Automobiles
• Sheet Steel and the Automobile – General Introduction

• Fundamentals of Sheet Steel Metallurgy

• Product Characteristics and Application Trends

• Hot Rolled Products
• Cold Rolled Products
• Coated Products
Hot Stamping

• Q&A
www.autosteel.org
 Steel – Material of Choice for
Modern Living
• “Most Large Metal Structures are made of Carbon Steel – the
World’s Most Useful Structural Material”
– Kennedy Space Center website

• Integral Material for modern buildings, medicine, homeland

security, food packaging, transportation and infrastructure.

• In today’s cars, Steel makes up about 62% weight

- Steel is the Backbone of the entire vehicle
(Protect occupants, Provide positive driving experience,
React to road loads, Provide comfort, and attachment points to
other components of the vehicle)

www.autosteel.org
 Automobile Weight Trend - VW

www.autosteel.org
 Reasons for Weight Gain

www.autosteel.org
Sheet Steel and the Automobile

www.autosteel.org
 Sheet Steel and the Automobile

60

50
Mild Steel
Elongation(%)
40

30
Conventional HSS

20

10
UHHS

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Tensile Stress（MPa）
Materials Manufacturing
Design

Safety Environment

Customer Satisfaction

Cost Light Weight

Performance

www.autosteel.org
 SHEET STEEL AND THE
AUTOMOBILE
Dent resistant High strength Ultra-high strength

Forming
Grade

www.autosteel.org
 Automotive Sheet Steels

70 Low Strength Ultra High Strength

Steels (<270MPa) Steels (>700MPa)
60 High Strength TWIP
Elongation (%)

Steels
50 IF Conventional HSS
40 IF-HS
Mild ISO
30 AHSS
BH TRIP
CM
20 n
HSL DP
A
10
MARTENSITE
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1600
Tensile Strength (MPa)

www.autosteel.org
 Steels – Alloys based on Iron

Fundamentals of Sheet
Steel Metallurgy

www.autosteel.org
 Strengthening Mechanisms

• Work Hardening (Dislocation Strengthening)

• Solid Solution Strengthening
• Grain Refinement
• Precipitation Strengthening
• Phase Transformations

Strength/Ductility in Steel obtained by a

combination of strengthening mechanisms

www.autosteel.org
 Fe - Fe3C Phase Diagram

www.autosteel.org
 Processing of HiTen Steels
Time-Temperature-Transformation (TTT) Diagram

AUSTENITE Microstructure
Ar3
Legend
Temperature

FERRITE
PEARLITE Austenite
Martensite
BAINITE Ferrite
Ms
MARTENSITE Bainite
Time

MARTENSITE DUAL TRIP COMPLEX

PHASE PHASE
www.autosteel.org
 Sheet Steel Microstructures

Ferrite (F) Martensite (M)

Dual Phase (F + M) TRIP (F + B/M + RA)

www.autosteel.org
 Strengthening Mechanisms in
Sheet Steels - Summary
Tensile
Carbon Grain
Strength, Solid Solution Precipitation Phase
Level Refinement
MPa Hardening Hardening Transformation

270 Low C √ √

340 ULC - L C, Mn, P √ √

440 ULC - L C, Mn, Si √ Nb, Ti, V √

Low - Nb, Ti, V,
600 Medium C, Mn, Si √ Mo √
Low- Nb, Ti, V,
800 Medium C, Mn, Si √ Mo √
Low - C, Mn, Si, Nb, Ti, V,
1000 DP Medium Mo √ Mo √
Medium - √ √
900 – 1500 M High C, Mn, Si

www.autosteel.org
 Facilities for High Strength Steels

Soak >720°C o
T>820 C

( C)
Temperature

Rapid cooling Cooling

o
5 ∼ 10 C/sec

o
Soak 600-700°C 500-1000 °C/s

Temperature

Temperature
Coating
Slow
Slow Overage 200-400°C
cooling
heating

Time (18-36 4-6 minutes

hrs)
Time (3-4 min)

www.autosteel.org
 Sheet Steel Applications

Formability of Sheet Steels

Stress – Strain Curves as
Surrogates

www.autosteel.org
 PRODUCT CHARACTERISITCS
HOT ROLLED STEELS
800
HSLA 700 ENGINEERING STRESS -STRAIN CURVES
HR GRADES
HSLA 550
700

HSLA 590TS
ENGINEERING STRESS, MPa

600

500

HSLA 350

400

300

HSLA 250
200

100
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
ENGINEERING STRAIN, %

www.autosteel.org
 PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
COLD ROLLED STEELS
1400
ENGINEERING STRESS -STRAIN CURVES
CR STEEL GRADES
1200 M190
(1300 MPa )
ENGINEERING STRESS, MPa

1000
980DU

DIFORM140T
800 (965 MPa TS)

600
590DU
590

400

200
440 270

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
ENGINEERING STRAIN, %

www.autosteel.org
 PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS
GALVANNEALED STEELS

1100
ENGINEERING STRESS - STRAIN CURVES
1000 GA STEEL GRADES
980DU

900
ENGINEERING STRESS, MP

800

700

600
590 590DU

500
440
400

300 340HR
340BH
200
270E
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
ENGINNERING STRAIN, %

www.autosteel.org
 TYPICAL STRESS STRAIN CURVES
FOR 590 MPa FAMILY OF STEELS
700

600
Engineering Stress, MPa

500

400 GA590

300 GA 590DU

GA 590TRIP
GA 590TRIP
200
GA 590 DU
GA 590
100

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Engineering Strain, %

www.autosteel.org
 Automotive Sheet Steels

70 Low Strength Ultra High Strength

Steels (<270MPa) Steels (>700MPa)
60 High Strength TWIP
Elongation (%)

Steels
50 IF Conventional HSS
40 IF-HS
Mild ISO USIBOR
30 AHSS
BH TRIP
CM
20 n
HSL DP USIBOR
A
10
MART
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1600
Tensile Strength (MPa)

www.autosteel.org
 Typical Hot Stamping
Process Steps

www.autosteel.org
 Example Parts made with
Usibor 1500P

Fuel Tank Guard

www.autosteel.org
 Main Properties After
Hot Stamping

www.autosteel.org
SHEET STEEL APPLICATION
TRENDS

www.autosteel.org
 SHEET STEEL
APPLICATION TRENDS
2007 North American Light Vehicle Steel Content for Body,
Bumper and Closures
(Extracted from the Ducker 2007 Report)

GM, Ford and DCX Foreign Domestics

- Segmented by Type of Steel - - Segmented by Type of Steel -

Bake Hard UHSS (Over 980) UHSS (Over 980)

576 203 63
AHSS 2.2% Bake Hard
6.2% 8.9% 1.5%
(590-980) 6.9% 385
644
MHSS (340) 11.0%
CHSS 12.0% 472 45.3%
(440)
Low Strength
1,122 56.0%
15.0% (270)
16.7% 1,952
Low Strength (270) CHSS (440)
MHSS (340) 18.3%
5,234 646
1,562 AHSS (590-980) 787
(Includes wheels)

9,341 Million Pounds of Content for 4,305 Million Pounds of Content for
9.9 Million Vehicles 5.394 Million Vehicles

www.autosteel.org
 SHEET STEEL
APPLICATION TRENDS
There is a significant difference between the percent of AHSS in vehicles using a
body on frame type architecture versus vehicles using a unibody type architecture.

Total Body on Frame Total Unibody Total

2007 Body and Closure Steel Content by Type
Advanced HSS Advanced HSS Advanced HSS*
HSS Mild Steel
5.8% 12.4% Mild Steel 9.4%
34.7% 51.5% 55.0%

36.1% HSS
35.6%
59.5% HSS
Mild Steel

976 Pounds 763 Pounds 842 Pounds

*AHSS is 73.6 pounds of Dual Phase , 5.8 pounds of martensitic, boron, complex phase,
recovery annealed steels and TRIP steel not including door intrusion or bumper beams

www.autosteel.org
 SHEET STEEL
APPLICATION TRENDS
2007 North American Light Vehicle Flat Rolled AHSS and UHSS Steel Content

Dual Phase Steels Other Steel Grades

Recovery Annealed
DP 780 TRIP and CP Steels
8% 52,000 Tons Boron Steels
28.2% 75,000 tons
17% 40.7%
DP 980

75% 31.1% Martensitic Steels

DP 500/600 57,200 Tons
Including 590R

665,000 Tons 184,200 Tons

www.autosteel.org
 Predicted Growth of AHSS
Usage - VW

www.autosteel.org
 AHSS usage to grow significantly

40
35 Nafta BIW AHSS Usage (% )
30 Japan

25 EU
EM
20
15 AHSS gathers
10 all MultiPhase
5 Source AM Global Auto Marketing Studies
Steels above
0 450MPa Ts
2000 2006 2012 2020

• Advance of Japanese OEMs in AHSS implementation

• AHSS Growth currently limited by transformation constraints
• Future Emerging markets needs calculated as if required AHSS were available.

www.autosteel.org
 Automotive Sheet Steels

70 Low Strength Ultra High Strength

Steels (<270MPa) Steels (>700MPa)
60 High Strength TWIP
Elongation (%)

Steels
50 IF Conventional HSS
40 IF-HS
Mild ISO USIBOR
30 AHSS
BH TRIP
CM
20 n
HSL DP USIBOR
A
10
MART
0
0 300 600 900 1200 1600
Tensile Strength (MPa)

www.autosteel.org
 ADVANCES IN HIGH STRENGTH
STEELS
FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU

www.autosteel.org