Fracture Profile and Crack Propagation of Ultra-High Strength Hot-Stamped Boron Steel During Mechanical Trimming Process

Abstract

Mechanical trimming process for ultra-high strength boron steel after hot stamping was carried out in this study. Shear and tensile tests were designed to analyze the influences of stress state on the fracture mode; trimmed fracture surface and profile were observed and compared to other commonly used steels such as DP980 and Q235 etc.; the crack propagation during trimming process was studied through step-by-step tests. The observation and analysis reveal that the fracture mode of hot-stamped boron steel is highly related to the stress state, it belongs to cleavage fracture on low stress triaxiality but dimple fracture on high stress triaxiality. Such phenomenon is reflected in the trimming process, during which the stress state changes from shear-dominated state to tensile-dominated state. In addition, the burnish zone of trimmed boron steel is much smaller than other high strength steels, and the profile of cutting surface shows an ‘S’-like shape which is destructive to the trimming tool. Moreover, during the trimming process, most martensite laths near the cutting edge are stretched and rotated markedly to the direction of the shear band, and the main crack expands along those grain boundaries, which may penetrate through a few martensite laths and form small crack branches.