Materials Science and Technology

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Development of stretch flangeable ferrite–bainite

grades through thin slab casting and rolling

M. Mukherjee, A.R. Chintha, S. Kundu, S. Misra, J. Singh, C. Bhanu & T.

Venugopalan

To cite this article: M. Mukherjee, A.R. Chintha, S. Kundu, S. Misra, J. Singh, C. Bhanu & T.
Venugopalan (2016): Development of stretch flangeable ferrite–bainite grades through thin
slab casting and rolling, Materials Science and Technology

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1743284715Y.0000000068

Published online: 19 Feb 2016.

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 RESEARCH PAPER
Development of stretch flangeable ferrite –
bainite grades through thin slab casting and
rolling
M. Mukherjee*1, A.R. Chintha1, S. Kundu1, S. Misra2, J. Singh3, C. Bhanu3 and
T. Venugopalan4
The focus towards the design of light environment friendly fuel efficient vehicles has led to an
increase in the demand for high strength steels. As it is true for any developing country, the extra
challenge for Indian steel industries is to produce such high strength steels at minimum cost. The
aim of the present work was to develop two high strength steel grades with minimum tensile
Downloaded by [University of Saskatchewan Library] at 00:46 30 March 2016

strengths of 540 and 590 MPa, in combination with good ductility and stretch flangeability,
through the thin slab casting and rolling route. The present paper describes the alloy and process
design methodology used for achieving the target properties. Several mill trials were taken to test
the proposed design, wherein the target microstructure and mechanical properties were
successfully achieved.
Keywords: Stretch flangeable, Ferrite, Bainite, Hole expansion ratio

Introduction and costly alloying elements like Cr/Ni/Mo/B and/or high

During the past few decades, the automobile industry has
shifted its focus towards the design of light weight
environment friendly, fuel efficient vehicles. This has
necessitated the replacement of conventional low strength
steels with higher strength steels so that thinner gauges can
be used and reduction in the weight of the auto components
is possible without compromising on safety and functional
requirements. Among the various autocomponents, the
weight reduction achievable by substituting conventional
mild steel with high strength steels is found to be the largest
for autowheels1 wherein the energy savings is estimated to
parts.2 Apart from this, there is also an increasing demand
for high strength steels for automotive structural parts
like suspension and chassis components. The typical
tensile strength requirement for such applications is
540–590 MPa. Moreover, considering that these parts are
quite complicated in shape and are manufactured mainly
by press forming, apart from the high strength require-
ments, it is also essential that such steels have good
formability and especially stretch flangeability [which is
measured as the hole expansion ratio (HER)].
In general, high strength formable grades, such as those
described above, are produced through the conventional
continuous casting hot strip rolling route. These alloys rely
on addition of very high amounts of Mn (1.7–2.0 wt-%)
1
2
Research and Development, TATA Steel, Jamshedpur 831001, India
Product Technology – Flat Products, TATA Steel, Jamshedpur 831001,
India
3
LD # 3 & TSCR, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur 831001, India
4
MD’s Office, Tata Steel, Jamshedpur 831001, India
*Corresponding author, email: monideepa@tatasteel.com
amounts of microalloying elements like Nb/Ti3,4 to achieve
the target properties. In order to minimise the cost, not only
should the alloy addition be optimised, but the processing
cost also needs to be reduced. Of late, thin slab casting and
rolling (TSCR) technology has become a major process for
hot strip production in the world due to its minimal energy
consumption, higher productivity and reduced cost of
production.5 However, there are certain unique features of
this production route due to which the production of high
strength grades of consistent quality through this route is
not very straightforward. Some of these features are listed
below:
(i) austenitisation takes place through the dRc poly-
morphic transformation; hence, the austenitisation
temperature is quite high unlike in the conventional
hot strip rolling process wherein austenite forms at
the reheating temperature through phase trans-
formation; as a result, the primary austenite grains
in this route are quite coarse (500–2000 mm)6,7
(ii) cast slabs are soaked in a tunnel furnace at 1100–
1150uC for around 20–30 min primarily for tem-
perature equalisation,8 unlike in conventional
mills where the slabs are reheated to temperatures
w1200uC for 2–3 h; therefore, the TSCR process
requires judicious selection of microalloying el-
ements to ensure their complete dissolution during
temperature equalisation, so that they can be
effectively utilised during the subsequent processing
steps
(iii) there is no rough rolling stage as in the conven-
tional mill, and hence, the as cast dendritic
microstructure has to be rolled and transformed
into a homogeneous microstructure in the
finishing train.8

© 2016 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining

Received 24 February 2015; accepted 21 April 2015
DOI 10.1179/1743284715Y.0000000068 Materials Science and Technology 2016 1
 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades
Considering the factors mentioned above, it is necessary
that chemistry and processing parameters specifically
suited to TSCR conditions be developed, so that prop-
erties similar to those obtained by traditional routes can
be achieved.
The aim of the present work was therefore to design the
chemistry and processing parameters required for produ-
cing two high strength steel grades, one with a minimum
tensile strength of 540 MPa for wheel rim applications
(steel 1) and another with a minimum tensile strength
of 590 MPa for wheel rim as well as structural applications
(steel 2), commercially through the TSCR mill at
Tata Steel, Jamshedpur works. Additionally for both
steels, a minimum HER of 70% was aimed for.
Alloy design: metallurgical aspects
At the outset, the various possible strengthening mech-
anisms were critically examined so that they could be
effectively utilised to identify the appropriate chemistry
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and processing parameters required for achieving the
target properties. The same are discussed below.
Solid solution strengthening
The most effective solid solution strengthening elements
are Mn and Si. However, Mn levels beyond 1.5% enhance
centreline segregation during continuous casting and also
cause microstructural heterogeneities.9 On the other
hand, Si levels beyond 0.5 wt-% lead to formation of
surface scales due to oxides of silicon.10 Hence, the Mn
level of the steel was fixed at 1.0–1.5 wt-%, whereas
the Si level was fixed at 0.1–0.35 wt% for the current
development. The carbon level was restricted to
v0.07 wt-%, in order to ensure that the steel composition
was outside the peritectic range so as to guarantee
adequate castability of the steel in the thin slab caster.11
Lower carbon content also results in good weldability,
which is necessary for automotive grades.11
Precipitation strengthening
Precipitation strengthening is brought about by the for-
mation of fine precipitates of microalloyed carbides,
nitrides or carbonitrides. In order to form such fine pre-
cipitates, it is necessary that the microalloying elements
remain in solid solution till the time rolling commences.
However, since the TSCR process involves very short dur-
ation soaking at relatively low temperatures before rolling,
the choice of the microalloying elements must be judiciously
made so as to ensure complete dissolution during tem-
perature equalisation. The most commonly used micro-
alloying elements are Ti, Nb and V. Among these, Ti is
generally avoided in TSCR grades because the dissolution
temperature of TiN precipitates (if formed during the prior
processing steps) is very high, and hence, these precipitates
are likely to remain undissolved even after temperature
equalisation. In fact, the tunnel furnace conditions may
only lead to coarsening of the TiN precipitates, rendering
them ineffective for precipitation strengthening.8 On the
other hand, the dissolution temperature of niobium is much
lower than titanium. Moreover, apart from precipitation
hardening, Nb retards recrystallisation of austenite and
lowers the austenite–ferrite transformation temperature,
both factors leading to enhanced grain refinement of ferrite
in Nb microalloyed steels.8,12 The dissolution temperature
of vanadium is even lower than both Nb and Ti. Further, in
2 Materials Science and Technology 2016
the presence of adequate amount of nitrogen (w0.008 wt-
%), enhanced precipitation of V(CN) takes place, which not
only contributes to precipitation hardening but also retards
recovery and softening of the lower transformation pro-
ducts like bainite during prolonged holding at relatively
higher temperatures after coiling.11 In view of the above,
two microalloying strategies were adopted, one with only
Nb for steel 1, and the other with Nb þ V for steel 2
(to account for its higher strength requirement). In order to
determine the maximum permissible amount of Nb which
would completely dissolve in austenite during the tem-
perature equalisation process, the dissolution temperatures
of carbonitrides of Nb and Nb þ V for various Nb and
N contents were calculated using Thermo-Calc software
using the TCFE7 database.13 The base composition of the
steels used for the calculations was 0.06 wt-%C, 1.3 wt-
%Mn, 0.25 wt-%Si, 0.005 wt-%S, 0.012 wt-%P, 0.03 and
0.05 wt-%V (for the Nb þ V steels). Considering that AlN
has a close packed hexagonal structure and its nucleation
kinetics in austenite is very slow,14,15 it was not included in
the calculations. Figure 1 shows the dissolution tempera-
tures thus calculated, with the average tunnel furnace tem-
perature of 1125uC indicated as a solid line. From the figure,
it is evident that when N content is 0.0085 wt-% or more, the
Nb content has to be restricted to 0.025 wt-% to ensure
complete dissolution under tunnel furnace conditions. Even
when the N content is as low as 0.005 wt-%, Nb content
beyond 0.03 wt-% cannot be used. Since for Nb þ V steels,
N has to be w0.008 wt-% to ensure enhanced precipitation
of V(CN), the Nb content of both steels was restricted to
v0.025 wt-%.
Grain refinement
One of the most effective strengthening mechanisms is
grain refinement of ferrite.16 Grain refinement is gener-
ally brought about using the controlled rolling technol-
ogy, which is possible with proper use of microalloying
elements. The minimum ferrite grain size achievable by
this method is 3–5 mm.17
The contribution of each of the mechanisms mentioned
above, to the yield strength of ferrite, was calculated using
standard empirical equations applicable to microalloyed
steels,18 and the same is illustrated in Fig. 2. The figure also
shows the maximum attainable yield strength of ferrite
calculated as the sum of the contributions from all the
1 Dissolution temperature of Nb(CN) or (Nb,V)(CN) in aus-
tenite for various Nb and N contents calculated using
Thermocalc;11 solid line represents average tunnel
furnace temperature of 11258C

2 Strengthening contribution of various mechanisms
towards yield strength (YS) of ferrite in steels 1 and 2;
dotted lines in figure represent target yield strengths of
steels, i.e. 500 MPa for steel 1 and 550 MPa for steel 2
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strengthening mechanisms. Considering that the target
yield strength for steel 1 was *500 MPa and that for steel 2
was *550 MPa (as indicated by dotted lines in the figure),
it is evident that the above mentioned strengthening
mechanisms are not sufficient to achieve the targeted yield
strength, hence indicating that a single phase precipitation
strengthened ferritic microstructure would not be ade-
quate. Therefore, the only way forward was to tailor the
microstructure so as to include lower temperature trans-
formation products like bainite (or acicular ferrite) and/or
martensite to get the desired strength.
Dual phase steels with ferrite–martensite microstruc-
ture have found wide applications in the automotive
sector due to their superior strength formability combi-
nation.19,20 However, these steels have relatively low
yield strength and low stretch flangeability.21 Addition-
ally, these steels soften in the heat affected zone.21
On the other hand, steels with ferrite þ bainite
microstructure have much better strength–stretch
flangeability balance and fracture toughness.22
Additionally, problems associated with welding are not
encountered in these steels.21 Hence, bainite was chosen
as the second phase microstructure for both steels.
Taking into consideration all the factors mentioned
above, a microstructure consisting of precipitation
strengthened ferrite as matrix and bainite as the second
phase was targeted for both grades.
Process design
After hot rolling in a finishing mill, the steel undergoes two
stages of cooling; the first is laminar cooling on the runout
table (RoT), and the second is slow cooling during coiling
of the strip. In general, the total time spent in the RoT is
around 10–12 s. Hence, the challenge of producing a
ferrite þ bainite microstructure in the RoT is that, in this
short time, the austenite has to transform to ferrite and
bainite without any concomitant pearlite formation. At the
same time, martensite formation during cooling or coiling
also has to be prevented.
In order to establish the appropriate RoT cooling
strategy, the continuous cooling transformation (CCT)
diagrams for the selected alloy chemistries were gener-
ated using a neural network based CCT prediction
model.23 For these calculations, only the solid solution
Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades
strengthening elements, namely, C, Mn and Si, were
considered. The effect of niobium was not considered
because it influences the CCT diagram in contrary ways
depending on its state of precipitation. When in solid
solution, niobium retards the austenite–ferrite trans-
formation kinetics, whereas when NbC exists as
precipitates, they act as nucleation sites for ferrite
resulting in an enhanced transformation kinetics.8
Vanadium, on the other hand, does not significantly
affect the ferrite transformation kinetics, but it retards
pearlite formation to some extent.23 However, vanadium
was also not included in the calculation, as it was not
added for steel 1. The CCT diagram shown in Fig. 3 was
constructed using steel 1 chemistry, but since the
compositions of both the steels with respect to the solid
solution strengthening elements were nearly equal, the
CCT diagram for Steel 2 was more or less identical to
the one shown in Fig. 3.
On the basis of the generated CCT diagram a single
stage RoT cooling strategy with rapid cooling (between
30 and 100uC s21) from finish rolling temperature to an
intermediate temperature in the bainitic bay followed by
air cooling to the coiling temperature was proposed so
that the desired microstructure consisting of ferrite þ -
bainite could be produced.
Mill trials
Mill trials were carried out using the proposed chemistries
as given in Table 1. The finish rolling temperature TFRT was
selected such that Ae3250uC<TFRT<Ae3 þ 50uC, where
Ae3 is the temperature at which the transformation of
austenite to ferrite starts at equilibrium. After finishing, the
strip was fast cooled at the proposed cooling rate
until an intermediate temperature TINT, given by
Ae32320uC<TINT<Ae32300uC was reached. This was
followed by natural cooling till the coiling temperature
given by 450uCvTCTv500uC was attained, and then the
strip was coiled at TCT. Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram
of the proposed cooling profile.
Tensile test specimens of 50 mm gage length and
12.5 mm gage width (ASTM E8) were machined parallel
to the transverse direction of the rolled strips. For each
steel, a minimum of three samples were prepared from
the tail end of the strips. Tensile tests were carried out
3 Continuous cooling transformation diagram for selected
chemistries generated using neural network based CCT
prediction model21
Materials Science and Technology 2016 3
 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades
Table 1 Chemical compositions of trial grades with Fe to balance/wt-%
Grade C Mn Si
Steel 1
Steel 2 ,0.07 1.0–1.5 0.1–0.35
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4 Schematic diagram of cooling profile
using an electromechanical tensile testing machine
(Instron 5582) at a crosshead speed of 1.67 mm s21.
From the stress–strain data, yield strength (0.2% offset),
tensile strength and total elongation were determined.
Hole expansion tests were carried out according to
ISO 16630 standards on a 60 tonne hydraulic press. For
this, 100| 100 mm square samples with a 10 mm
diameter hole punched at the centre of the specimens
were used. For each steel, a minimum of four samples
were prepared from the tail end of the strips. The pun-
ched hole was expanded using a 50 mm diameter conical
punch with a 60u apex angle. All tests were conducted in
the burr up position, and no lubricant was applied to the
specimen. The test was stopped as soon as a through
thickness crack was detected. The HER (in %) was cal-
culated according to equation (1), where do and df are
the initial and final diameters of the punched hole, which
were determined by taking the mean of three measure-
ments made roughly at 60u to each other
 
df 2 do
HER ¼ 100 ð1Þ
do
For the microstructural study, through thickness speci-
mens were sectioned, ground and polished according to
standard metallographic techniques. The samples were
then etched with 2% nital and examined using light
optical microscopy as well as scanning electron
microscopy (SEM). Some samples were also etched with
the Le Pera24 reagent to detect the presence of marten-
site, if any. Ferrite grain size was determined using the
planimetric method according to ASTM E112 stan-
dards, using the Leica Q grain software package.
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of carbon
extraction replicas was carried out to determine the nature
of the precipitates. For preparing the extraction replicas,
polished samples were first etched with 2% nital. The etched
samples were then coated with a carbon film following
which they were immersed in concentrated HCl till the
4 Materials Science and Technology 2016
S P Nb V N
... ,0.005
,0.005 ,0.03 ,0.025 0.05–0.06 0.007–0.012
carbon film/extraction replicas started peeling off. The
replicas were then floated in distilled water from where they
were collected on copper grids. The replicas were observed
using a JEOL JEM2200F transmission electron micro-
scope operated at 200 kV. The composition of the
precipitates was determined using energy dispersive X-ray
spectrometry (EDS).
Results
Microstructure
Figures 5 and 6 show the typical optical and scanning
electron micrographs obtained from the hot rolled steel
samples of steels 1 and 2 respectively. In both steels, the
microstructures were found to have a ferritic matrix and
bainite as second phase. Le Pera24 etching and SEM
confirmed that no measurable martensite was present in
the microstructures. In steel 2, slight banding was
observed, which could be due to the moderately higher
level of manganese used in this steel. In both steels,
the average area fraction of bainite was determined to be
0.25 from standard point counting method. The average
grain size of ferrite was found to vary between 3.5 and
3.7 mm in both steels.
Precipitation state
The precipitation state in steels 1 and 2 are shown in
Figs. 7 and 8 respectively. From EDS analysis, the
precipitates were found to consist of either only Nb, or
Nb þ Ti in steel 1, whereas in steel 2, the precipitates
were found to consist of either Nb þ V or Nb þ V þ Ti.
Precipitates containing only Ti were not detected in
either steel. Furthermore, in steel 2, precipitates con-
taining either only Nb, or only V or V þ Ti were not
detected. The average atomic per cent of Nb in the
Nb þ Ti containing precipitates in steel 1 was found to
be 54%, indicating that they were only slightly richer in
Nb. In steel 2, on the other hand, the average atomic per
cent of Nb in the Ti containing precipitates was found to
be 63%, with the average atomic per cent of vanadium
and titanium being 19 and 22% respectively. In the non-
Ti precipitates, also the average atomic per cent of Nb
was 61%, clearly indicating that, in all precipitates of
steel 2, Nb was the dominant component. In both steels,
the Ti containing precipitates were found to be larger
with an average size of *30 nm, while the size of the
non-Ti precipitates was found to be *17 nm.
Mechanical properties
The mechanical properties (yield strength, ultimate ten-
sile strength and total elongation) of the hot rolled steels
are listed in Table 2. In both steels, the mechanical
properties with respect to ultimate tensile strength and
HER were achieved.
Discussion
Traditional high strength steels for wheel rim and
structural applications are produced through the
 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades

5 a optical and b scanning electron micrographs of hot rolled steel 1 grade (a B: bainite; a: ferrite)
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6 a optical and b scanning electron micrographs of hot rolled steel 2 grade (a B: bainite; a: ferrite)

7 a transmission electron micrograph of carbon extraction replica showing precipitation state in steel 1, b size distribution
of precipitates and EDS spectrum of precipitates marked c A and d B

Materials Science and Technology 2016 5

 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades
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8 a transmission electron micrograph of carbon extraction replica showing precipitation state in steel 2, b size distribution
of precipitates and EDS spectrum of precipitates marked c A and d B
Table 2 Mechanical properties*
Steel grade YS/MPa UTS/MPa TEL/% HER/%
Steel 1 508¡4 570¡2 29¡4 78¡6
Steel 2 566¡3 618¡2 22¡2 77¡2
* YS: yield strength; UTS: ultimate tensile strength; TEL: total
elongation; HER: hole expansion ratio.
conventional continuous casting, i.e. hot strip mill route,
which, due to their high alloy addition, are not only
expensive but also very difficult to produce through the
TSCR route. This work successfully demonstrates that the
same grades can be produced through the TSCR route
using much leaner chemistries by appropriately tailoring
the microstructure to achieve the target properties. How-
ever, there are some critical factors pertaining to the design
philosophy, which are described in this section.
Microstructure evolution and importance of
cooling profile
Continuous cooling lowers the austenite–ferrite trans-
formation temperature, whereas, when austenite is
deformed, the transformation temperature increases.
Hence, the finish rolling temperature was set at Ae3+ 50uC
to ensure that there is no rolling in the intercritical region.
This was confirmed by the absence of elongated ferrite
grains, typical of intercritical rolling, in the final micro-
structure. After finish rolling, the deformed austenite was
cooled on the RoT according to the prescribed cooling
strategy. On the basis of several mill trials taken for both
steel grades, the cooling profile was identified to be one of
the most critical parameters for achieving the desired
microstructure and mechanical properties. In the first
stage of cooling, austenite transforms to ferrite. The high
6 Materials Science and Technology 2016
cooling rate at this stage not only prevents any pearlite
formation but also results in lowering the ferrite start
temperature, which leads to refinement of the ferrite grain
size.25 However, if the cooling rate is too high, it will
prevent ferrite formation also, which is not desirable.
The first stage of cooling continues till an intermediate
temperature (which is below the bainite start temperature
Bs) is reached. The air cooling step beyond this stage results
in the transformation of the remaining austenite to bainite.
The intermediate temperature is, therefore, a very
crucial parameter because if the correct intermediate tem-
perature is not attained, apart from insufficient bainite
formation, undesired microstructural components like
pearlite and/or degenerate pearlite may form, which not
only affects the tensile properties but also lowers the
HER.26 A few examples of the above conditions
are described here to highlight the significance of attaining
the correct cooling profile.
Figure 9 shows the optical and scanning electron
micrographs of steel 1 produced with a slower than
prescribed cooling rate and a higher than prescribed coiling
temperature. The mechanical properties and the ferrite
grain size thus obtained are listed in Table 3. From the
optical micrograph (Fig. 9a), the microstructure seems to
contain only ferrite and pearlite. However, a few bainite
islands could be detected at much higher magnifications
using SEM. The ferrite grain size (Table 3) was also much
higher than the targeted value. Failure to achieve the
proper cooling rate led to the inappropriate microstructure
as a result of which the targeted tensile properties could not
be achieved.
Figure 10 shows the scanning electron micrographs of
steel 2 grade produced with the correct initial cooling
rate but a high intermediate temperature. The micro-
graphs reveal that the second phase consists of a mixture
of bainitic regions, pearlitic regions and what appears
 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades

9 a optical and scanning electron micrographs of steel 1 produced using improper cooling profile (a: ferrite; P: pearlite;
a B: bainite)

Table 3 Mechanical properties and grain size of steel 1 rolling) of Nb and/or V leading to reduction in their
grade produced using improper cooling profile
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overall effectiveness and hence reduction in the yield

Steel grade YS/MPa UTS/MPa TEL/% Grain size/mm
Steel 1 465¡7 524¡5 23¡2 6 precipitates in both steels suggests that the scrap used to
to be ferrite/cementite aggregates that could be bainite and/
or non-lamellar pearlite or degenerate pearlite. The corre-
sponding mechanical properties and grain size obtained are
listed in Table 4. Failure to attain the correct intermediate
temperature might have led to the formation of the non-
bainitic components in the microstructure, which not only
led to inferior tensile properties but also low HER.26
However, due to the correct initial cooling rate, the target
ferrite grain size could be achieved.
Precipitation behaviour
As mentioned earlier, addition of titanium is not pre-
ferred in TSCR grades because of the high dissolution
temperature of TiN precipitates. Moreover, the presence
of titanium also leads to premature precipitation (before
strength.27 Since, in the present work, titanium was not
intentionally added, the detection of titanium containing
make the steel contained traces of titanium. However,
the fact that no significant effect on the yield strength
was recorded implies that the extent of premature pre-
cipitation was quite low.
In steel 2, all precipitates had Nb as the dominant com-
ponent, which is expected as Nb has a higher dissolution
temperature and hence starts precipitating earlier compared
to V, and the extent of precipitation is also higher. Although
the existence of precipitates was confirmed in these steels,
a detailed TEM study after various processing stages is
required for accurately determining the exact mechanism of
precipitation.
In general, the contribution of precipitation strengthening
is determined as a function of the volume fraction and radius
of precipitates using the Ashby–Orowan relationsip.16
However, for design purposes, this relationship is not very

10 Scanning electron micrograph of steel 2 produced using high intermediate temperature (1: bainitic region; 2: pearlitic
region; 3: bainite and/or non-lamellar pearlite)

Table 4 Mechanical properties and grain size of steel 2 grade produced using high intermediate temperature

Steel grade YS/MPa UTS/MPa TEL/% HER/% Grain size/mm

Steel 2 495¡2 556¡1 26¡1 70¡1 3?5

Materials Science and Technology 2016 7

 Mukherjee et al. Stretch flangeable ferrite – bainite grades
useful, as determination of volume fraction and radius of
precipitates beforehand requires in-depth modelling of the
precipitation process, which is even more complicated in the
case of thermomechanically processed steels wherein pre-
cipitation can take place during hot rolling (in the interpass),
in the austenite during cooling after finish rolling, during
phase transformation to ferrite or homogeneously in ferrite
during coiling. Alternatively, some amount of microalloying
elements may still remain in solid solution, which also con-
tributes to the strength. Hence, in the present work, instead
of the Ashby–Orowan relationship, a more simplified
approach, which takes into account the total content of the
precipitating alloy, was used,18 and the estimated strength
was found to be quite accurate.
Conclusions
Two high strength hot rolled automotive steel grades with
minimum tensile strengths of 540 and 590 MPa with excel-
lent ductility and stretch flangeability have been developed
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through the TSCR mill at Tata Steel Jamshedpur works.
The present work primarily focused on exploring the
various possible strengthening mechanisms that could be
utilised effectively in order to achieve the target prop-
erties. Based on the present study, a microstructure
consisting of precipitation strengthened ferrite as matrix
and bainite as the second phase was targeted. Through
literature survey, thermodynamic calculations, empirical
strength calculations and process simulation, suitable
microalloyed steel chemistries and a single stage RoT
cooling strategy were proposed.
Several successful mill trials for both grades were
taken wherein the target mechanical and microstructural
requirements were met.
Acknowledgements
The project team wishes to thank the management of
Tata Steel for supporting this work. We are especially
grateful to various departments of Tata Steel for facil-
itating the trials and arranging for the samples for
analysis. Very special thanks are due to Mr Yadav,
Mr Sashi, Mr N. Mahto, Mr Nitish, Mr Hilal,
Mr Mohit Lal and Dr Pampa Ghosh for assisting in
carrying out the characterisation work.
References
1. T. Irie, K. Tsunoyama, M. Shinozaki and T. Kato: ‘High strength
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