Materials Science Forum

ISSN: 1662-9752, Vol. 890, pp 362-366

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.890.362
© 2017 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland

Implementing Thermomechanical Properties of 22MnB5 Steel

during Hot Single-Point Incremental Forming
Amar AL-Obaidi1,a *, Verena Kräusel1,b, Dirk Landgrebe2,c
1
Institute of Machine Tools and Production Processes IWP, Technische Universität Chemnitz,
Chemnitz, Germany, Professorship of Forming and Joining UFF
2
Fraunhofer-Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, Chemnitz, Germany
a
amar.obaidi@gmail.com, bverena.kraeusel@mb.tu-chemnitz.de,
c
dirk.landgrebe@iwu.fraunhofer.de

Keywords: induction heating, single-point incremental forming (SPIF), advanced high-strength

steel 22MnB5.

Abstract. The strategy in manufacturing hardened parts used in car bodies is to tailor the
mechanical properties. This is done by combining together a high-strength region and a high-
toughness region to ensure the crash performance required. Other successive secondary operations
such as trimming, joining and welding can be improved as a result of the tailoring process. In this
work, the mechanical properties of 22MnB5 alloy sheet material produced by single-point
incremental forming have been tailored. For this purpose, the sheets were locally heated by
induction during the forming process and subsequently cooled. The sheet temperature was
controlled by the CNC milling machine feed rate and induction power. As a result, the produced
tailored parts consist of three different regions: ductile, transition and hardened regions. The
Vickers hardness values were 583 HV1 and 175 HV1 for the hardened and ductile regions,
respectively. The proposed application allows forming and quenching at the same time without
transfer and to reduce the process time.

Introduction
The feasibility of using ultimate high-strength steel (UHSS) is limited due to the high forces that are
present during cold forming. At the same time, a complex production process is required to
overcome the difficulties concerning the spring back which increases remarkably and to guarantee
the properties combining both high strength and ductility for automobile structure parts. Therefore,
the application of manganese–boron steel alloy 22MnB5 curiously rises due to increase the
efficiency of automobiles by making tailored structures [1], especially when producing the A and B
pillars. The aim, instead of using costly high-strength steels and the associated forming problems,
was to create and develop a cost-efficient variant during production, i.e. 22MnB5 steel.

Press hardening. The press hardening method, which was expressed by forming and heating
then quenching the 22MnB5 steel sheet, was remarkable in resolving many problems. Furthermore,
different press hardening processes were invented to reduce the time and cost in particular during
mass production of structural parts for cars. The press hardening was performed by [2], where the
sheet was first heated in the oven, then formed and fully quenched in the die. Later, a resistance
heating method was investigated in [3] in which the sheet blank was connected to electrodes that
transformed the electrical energy to heat the sheet blank by conduction.
Tailored die quenching. The improvement of heating methods for quenchable steel 22MnB5
leads to the manufacturing of tailored products that have different mechanical properties in a single
part. In the same way, [4] introduced the processing of a tailored formed part by applying resistance
heating, whereas [5] presented a new technology summarized by controlling the heating and cooling
of the sheet simultaneously in the forming tool. Later, a local resistance heating process was applied
by [6] to perform a tailored structure.
 Materials Science Forum Vol. 890 363

A new method for incremental hot forming assisted by induction heating was invented by [7] to
improve the formability of 22MnB5 steel sheet and to decrease the forming forces. Incremental hot
forming assisted by induction heating was investigated in this paper to produce a tailored
mechanical properties structure from the quenchable 22MnB5 steel sheet.

Method of experiment
Hot single-point incremental forming. The set-up that was applied in the experiment was the
same as that investigated by [7] and is shown in Figure 1. At the beginning, initial experiments were
utilized in order to improve the formability of 22MnB5 steel. Moreover, initial experiments were
executed to ensure the feasibility of induction heating during forming by single-point incremental
forming.

spindle

connecting arm rings

sliding jig

tool

Sliding fixtures sheet metal

sectional view

clamping fixture
sectional view

dynamometer
inductor

induction machine head CNC milling machine table

electricity cable and cooling pipe

Figure 1: Experimental set-up.

The sheet blank was heated by a 50 kW induction machine with a fixed frequency of 350 kHz.
An inductor is connected to the induction machine head and moves simultaneously with the forming
tool. Three forming tools with different geometries were used in the experiments with KXF
tungsten carbide. A fixing assembly was made to adjust the tool to being always over the inductor
and the sheet blank was positioned between them as shown in Fig. 1. The inductor used had a
diameter 13.6 mm. On the other hand, a clamping fixture was used to clamp the 22MnB5 sheet
blank with a thickness of 1.5 mm. The investigated 22MnB5 press hardened steel was coated with
an aluminium-silicon coating, which was delivered by the ThyssenKrupp Stahl-Service-Centre
Company.
Plan of the experiments. This paper is focused on achieving a graded steel structure from the
22MnB5 by induction heating incremental forming as well as to calculate the correlations between
sheet metal temperature and the process parameters. The austenite temperature of 22MnB5 steel is
950 °C and its transformation to martensite with hardness of about 470 HV is realised by cooling
with a cooling rate 27 K/s [1]. Due to the fact that the affecting parameters on the sheet blank
364 Material Science and Engineering Technology V

temperature were tool feed rate and induction power as in [8], the following can be inferred: The
lower the feed rate, the higher the temperature. At the same time, the higher the induction power,
the higher the heating temperature, which sometimes leads to a partial melting of the sheet blank.
To achieve a tailored structure for the produced part, the experiments were performed firstly with
cold forming up to a specified depth, followed by hot forming until the austenite temperature was
reached, and then quenched. A 2500 mm/min feed rate was applied in cold forming and hot forming
was performed at three different feed rates of 1500, 1000 and 750 mm/min.
The dimensions of the blank used were 200×200 mm to form the part geometry of a pyramid
shape with 100×100 mm edges; the sloped wall angle was 63°.
Moreover, the samples were firstly cold formed. The induction heating started when reaching a
depth of 25 mm and lasted until the design depth was reached. Finally, the part was quenched by
water to achieve a cooling rate ranging between 30 and 25 K/s, as in Fig. 2.

hot formed and

quenched area
cold formed
area

Figure 2: Tailored produced sample.

Results
Hardness distribution in the profile zone. The most striking results were extracted as shown in
Fig. 3-a and the hardness values were measured in the cross section of the formed and locally
hardened part. The hardness reached more than 580 HV1 in the quenched area of the part. At the
same time, the hardness value at the centre of the part was less than 200 HV1. Consequently, the
hardness of the as-delivered 22MnB5 steel sheet employed for the investigation was 250 HV20.
Only in the zone that is heated by the inductor the austenitization temperature can be reached. This
zone is restricted to a circular inductor with a diameter of 13.6 mm.
Therefore, within the central zone temperature it was not possible to reach the austenitization
temperature in order to obtain an additional graded structure in the formed part.
It is worth noting that these results correlate favourably with [4]. At a distance of 45 mm from
the centre of the part, the hardness value was also found to be less than the as-delivered hardness of
the 22MnB5 steel.

(a)
(b)
Vickers hardness HV1

I
I
0

Distance from profile centre in mm

Figure 3: (a) Relation between hardness and distance in the profile cross section and
(b) pyramid formed up to 30 mm depth with marked cross section I-I.
 Materials Science Forum Vol. 890 365

Microstructural development. Fig. 4 shows zones of different microstructure in the formed

sheet profile after hot forming and quenching. This result has further strengthened the confidence in
producing a tailored part with different structural zones, firstly with the martensitic structure, as
presented in Fig. 4-a, at which zone I was locally hardened. The less hardened zone presenting
a martensitic structure with rest zones from the austenitic structure is a consequence of the low
cooling rate presented in Fig. 4-b. The transition zone, which contains martensite and more
austenite, is shown in Fig. 4-c, whereas Fig. 4-d indicates a structure form martensite, ferrite and
pearlite.
On the other hand, Fig. 4-e presents a microstructure of a combination of bainite, pearlite and
ferrite. Fig. 4-f shows the annealed zone, which contains only pearlite and ferrite. In other words,
zone II presented a formed, hardened and transition to annealed structure and zone III presented a
formed and unheated metal. The rest of the unformed and unheated 22MnB5 steel sheet shows
clearly the rolling direction as shown in Fig. 4-as-delivered, which is named zone IV. Further tests
were carried out by [9] that confirmed the obtained microstructure presented in this paper.

Conclusions
Various hardened zones were made by local heat treatment of the 22MnB5 steel sheet during the
single-point incremental forming. The stated operation leads to more flexibility in forming and
hardening due to the application of tools that form a metal of a lower formability. It also reduces
cycle times, the number of operations and equipment in the production lines. As the investigated
operation is only able of hardening the last heated zone in the formed part, the presented method
requires more investigations in the future in order to form and harden specific zones in the produced
part.

Figure 4: Profile cross section A-A with different microstructural zones: (a): martensite,
(b): martensite and remaining austenite, (c): martensite and more austenite, (d): martensite, ferrite
and pearlite, (e): combination of bainite, pearlite and ferrite, (f): pearlite and ferrite and as-delivered
metal.
366 Material Science and Engineering Technology V

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