The present disclosure relates to a method for producing a high strength coated steel sheet having improved strength, ductility and formability and to the sheets obtained with the method.
To manufacture various equipments such as parts of body structural members and body panels for automotive vehicles, it is usual to use galvanized or galvannealed sheets made of DP (dual phase) steels or TRIP (transformation induced plasticity) steels.
For example, such steels which include a martensitic structure and/or some retained austenite and which contains about 0.2% of C, about 2% of Mn, about 1.7% of Si have a yield strength of about 750 MPa, a tensile strength of about 980 MPa, a total elongation of more than 8%. These sheets are produced on continuous annealing line by quenching from an annealing temperature higher than Ac3 transformation point, down to an overaging temperature above Ms Transformation point and maintaining the sheet at the temperature for a given time. Then the sheet is galvanized or galvannealed.
To reduce the weight of the automotive in order to improve their fuel efficiency in view of the global environmental conservation it is desirable to have sheets having improved yield and tensile strength. But such sheets must also have a good ductility and a good formability and more specifically a good stretch flangeability.
In this respect, it is desirable to have sheets having a yield strength YS of at least 800 MPa, a tensile strength TS of about 1180 MPa, a total elongation of at least 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER according to ISO standard 16630:2009 of more than 25%. It must be emphasized that, due to differences in the methods of measure, the values of hole expansion ration HER according to the ISO standard are very different and not comparable to the values of the hole expansion ratio λ, according to the JFS T 1001 (Japan Iron and Steel Federation standard).
Therefore, the purpose of the present disclosure is to provide such sheet and a method to produce it.
For this purpose, the present disclosure relates to a method for producing a high strength coated steel sheet having an improved strength and an improved formability, the sheet having a yield strength YS of at least 800 MPa, a tensile strength TS of at least 1180 MPa, a total elongation of at least 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER of at least 30%, by heat treating and coating a steel sheet whose chemical composition of the steel contains in weight %:
Preferably, the quenching temperature QT is between 350° C. and 375° C.
Preferably, the partitioning temperature PT is between 435° C. and 465° C.
The chemical composition of the steel can satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
The hot dip coating step may be a galvanizing step.
The hot dip coating step may be a galvannealing step with an alloying temperature TGA between 480° C. and 510° C. In this case, the partitioning time PT is preferably between 50 s and 70 s.
Preferably, after the sheet is quenched to the quenching temperature QT and before the sheet is heated to the partitioning temperature PT, the sheet is held at the quenching temperature QT for a holding time comprised between 2 s and 8 s, preferably between 3 s and 7 s.
The present disclosure, also, relates to a coated steel sheet whose chemical composition of the steel contains in weight %:
Optionally the chemical composition of the steel can satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
The at least one coated face is, for example, galvanized.
The at least one coated face is, for example, galvannealed.
The present disclosure will now be described in details but without introducing limitations and illustrated by the FIGURE which is a micrograph of an example of the present disclosure.
According to the present disclosure, the sheet is obtained by hot rolling and optionally cold rolling of a semi product which chemical composition contains, in weight %:
The remainder being iron and residual elements resulting from the steelmaking. In this respect, Ni, Cr, Cu, V, B, S, P and N at least are considered as residual elements which are unavoidable impurities. Therefore, generally, their contents are less than 0.05% for Ni, 0.10% for Cr, 0.03 for Cu, 0.007% for V, 0.0010% for B, 0.005% for S, 0.02% for P and 0.010% for N.
The sheet is prepared by hot rolling and optionally cold rolling according to the methods known by those who are skilled in the art.
After rolling the sheets are pickled or cleaned then heat treated and hot dip coated.
The heat treatment which is made preferably on a combined continuous annealing and hot dip coating line comprises the steps of:
With such treatment, coated sheets having a yield strength YS of at least 800 MPa, a tensile strength of at least 1180 MPa, a total elongation of at least 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER according to the ISO standard 16630:2009 of at least 30% can be obtained.
As an example a sheet of 1.2 mm in thickness having the following composition:
C=0.18%, Si=1.5% Mn=2.0%, Nb=0.02%, Mo=0.15%, the remainder being Fe and impurities, was manufactured by hot and cold rolling. The theoretical Ms transformation point of this steel is 386° C. and the Ac3 point is 849° C.
Samples of the sheet were heat treated by annealing, quenching and partitioning then galvanized or galvannealed, and the mechanical properties were measured.
The conditions of treatment and the obtained properties are reported at table I for the samples that were galvanized and at table II for the samples that were galvannealed.
In these tables, TA is the annealing temperature, QT the quenching temperature, PT the partitioning temperature, Pt the maintaining time at the partitioning temperature, TGA the temperature of alloying for the sheets that were galvannealed, YS the yield strength, TS the tensile strength, UE the uniform elongation, TE the total elongation and HER the hole expansion ratio measured according to the ISO 16630:2009 standard.
For example 9, “520-20” (TGA) means that the steel has been at the GA temperature of 520° C. for 20 seconds, in the other examples (7,8 and 10) once the GA temperature is reached, then the temperature decreases slowly before the final cooling.
Examples 1 to 4 show that with a quenching temperature equal or less than 350° C., a partitioning at a temperature of 460° C. with a partitioning time from 30 s to 90 s galvanized sheets have a yield strength higher than 800 MPa, a tensile strength higher than 1180 MPa, a total elongation of more than or equal to 12% and a hole expansion ratio measured according to ISO standard 16630: 2009 higher than 30%.
Examples for which the quenching temperature is higher than Ms are comparative examples and/or according to the prior art. The structure contains ferrite or bainite and austenite and the yield strength is significantly less than 800 MPa.
The examples 7 to 10 show that, when the sheet is galvannealed, the temperature of alloying has to be as low as possible to obtain a total elongation of 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER of more than 30%. Example 7, a micrograph of which is shown at the figure, contains 7% of retained austenite and 96% of the sum of martensite and bainite.
The conditions of treatment and the obtained properties are reported at table I for the samples that were galvanized and at table II for the samples that were galvannealed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2014/003249 | Jul 2014 | IB | international |
This is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/322,722, filed Dec. 28, 2016 which is a National Phase of International Patent Application PCT/IB2015/055035, filed Jul. 3, 2015 claiming priority of International Patent Application PCT/IB2014/003249, filed Jul. 3, 2014, the entire disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15322722 | Dec 2016 | US |
Child | 17247358 | US |