Influence of cooling rate and boron content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of hot-rolled high strength interstitial-free steels

Abstract

A pilot hot strip rolling and cooling test that simulates an actual hot strip rolling and continuous cooling process was performed. We then examined the effect of cooling rates ranging from 0.1 °Cs−1 to 100 °Cs−1 on the microstructure and mechanical properties of high strength interstitial-free (IF) steels containing 0.003 wt% of boron, 0.0005 wt% of boron and no boron. The mechanical properties and microstructures of the boron-added high strength IF steels were analyzed using uni-axial tensile test and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) following the pilot hot strip rolling and cooling test. Results show that the microstructure of high strength IF steel with no boron is influenced significantly by cooling rates. There is a critical cooling rate for building up polygonal ferrite (PF) grains. PF grains do not occur when high strength IF steels with a boron content of 0.0005 wt% and 0.003 wt% undergo a cooling rate of 5.0 °Cs−1, however widmanstatten ferrite (WF), granular ferrite (GF) and quasi-polygonal ferrite (QF) grains are present. Under the same hot rolling and slow cooling conditions, high strength IF steel with no boron has recrystallized PF grains. On the contrary, high strength IF steel with boron cooled at above 3 °Cs−1 doesn’t have GF or QF grains, and subsequently generates the unrecrystallized ferritic grains and WF grains, which increase the yield and tensile strengths. It is deduced that we need to control both the cooling rate and coiling temperature when boron-added high strength IF steel sheet is manufactured in an actual hot strip rolling mill.