Abstract In the automotive industry hot stamping of boron manganese steels represents one of the major technologies to manufacture crash relevant structures within body in white considering aspects of light weight construction. Hot stamping can be described as a non-isothermal hot sheet metal forming process. Temperature control in the forming process plays an important role. The process is quite complex as temperature dependent material and process properties such as flow curves, heat transfer and friction coefficients have to be considered. To improve the knowledge about the process the influence of different process parameters and tool coatings on the heat transfer between tool and specimen is investigated. Additionally, the impact of monolayer, multilayer and superlattice coatings on the wear behavior and on friction is characterized. Furthermore, the effect of different austenitization parameter settings is analyzed with regard to the tribological conditions and resulting adhesive wear.