MBW 1200 – Hot Stamping Steel with Increased Ductility

Abstract

Hot stamping steels are trending towards increased ductility without sacrificing too much stiffness. Thus a new aluminum silicon coated grade, MBW 1200 + AS has been developed, with typical yield strength after hot stamping and paint baking of YS ≈ 1000 MPa, tensile strength TS ≈ 1200 MPa and A80 > 5.0 %. The highly increased ductility compared to 22MnB5 expresses through the particularly increased bending angle of >75° and the logarithmic true thickness strain of ≈0.90. Hence MBW 1200 shows the desired significantly higher ductility compared to 22MnB5 in lateral crash testing without crack appearance. The process stability has been approved by different tests, e.g. increased furnace dwell time, tool temperature and transfer time. Verifying MBW 1200 in patchwork blank applications with total thicknesses of 3.0 and 3.5 mm showed only a minor decrease of YS and TS between 30 and 50 MPa and leaves the Vickers hardness at ≈400 HV10 with fully martensitic microstructure. In partial press hardening tests, using tools heated of up to 550 °C, bending angles reach the test’s maximum and YS falls below 500 MPa with a hardness of ≈210 HV1. Finally in a comparison between experiment and numerical hot stamping simulation it can be shown, that the determined material modelling parameters can well be used in the feasibility analysis of new automotive components.