The present invention relates to a method for producing a high strength 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 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 a quenching temperature higher than Ms transformations point followed by heating to an overaging temperature above the Ms point and maintaining the sheet at the temperature for a given time. Then the sheet is cooled to the room temperature.
Due to the wish 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 850 MPa, a tensile strength TS of about 1180 MPa, a total elongation of at least 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER measured according to the ISO standard 16630:2009 of at least 30%. 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 invention is to provide such sheet and a method to produce it.
For this purpose, the invention relates to a method for producing a high strength steel sheet having an improved ductility and an improved formability, the sheet having a yield strength YS of at least 850 MPa, a tensile strength TS of at least 1180 MPa, a total elongation of at least 14% and a hole expansion ratio HER according to the ISO standard of at least 30%, by heat treating a steel sheet whose the chemical composition of the steel contains, in weight %:
In a particular embodiment, the chemical composition of the steel is such that Al≤0.05%.
Preferably, the cooling speed during the quenching is of at least 20° C./s, still preferably at least 30° C./s.
Preferably, the method further comprises, after the sheet is quenched to the quenching temperature QT and before the sheet is heated up to the partitioning temperature PT, a step of holding the sheet at the quenching temperature QT for a holding time comprised between 2 s and 8 s, preferably between 3 s and 7 s. Preferably, the annealing temperature is higher than Ac3+15° C., in particular higher than 850° C.
The invention relates also to a steel sheet whose chemical composition contains in weight %:
The yield strength may even be greater than 950 MPa.
In a particular embodiment, the chemical composition of the steel is such that Al≤0.05%.
Preferably, the amount of carbon in the retained austenite is of at least 0.9%, preferably at least 1.0%.
Preferably, the average austenitic grain size is of at most 5 μm.
The invention will now be described in details but without introducing limitations and illustrated by the only figure which is a scanning electron microscope micrograph corresponding to example 10.
According to the invention, the sheet is obtained by hot rolling and optionally cold rolling of a semi product which chemical composition contains, in weight %:
The remainder is iron and residual elements resulting from the steelmaking. In this respect, Ni, Mo, Cu, V, B, S, P and N at least are considered as residual elements which are unavoidable impurities. Therefore, their contents are less than 0.05% for Ni, 0.02% for Mo, 0.03% for Cu, 0.007% for V, 0.0010% for B, 0.007% 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.
The heat treatment which is made preferably on a combined continuous annealing line comprise the steps of:
With such treatment, sheets have a structure consisting of 3% to 15% of retained austenite and 85% to 97% of martensite and bainite, without ferrite. Indeed, due to the quenching under the Ms point, the structure contains martensite and at least 50%. But for such steels, martensite and bainite are very difficult to distinguish. It is why only the sum of the contents of martensite and bainite are considered. With such structure, the sheet having a yield strength YS of at least 850 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=0.19%, Si=1.5% Mn=2.2%, Cr=0.2%, the remainder being Fe and impurities, was manufactured by hot and cold rolling. The theoretical Ms transformation point of this steel is 375° C. and the Ac3 point is 835° C.
Samples of the sheet were heat treated by annealing, quenching and partitioning, i.e; heating to a partitioning temperature and maintaining at this temperature, and the mechanical properties were measured. The sheets were held at the quenching temperature for about 3 s.
The conditions of treatment and the obtained properties are reported at table I where the annealing type (Ann. type) column specifies if the annealing is intercritical (IA) or fully austenitic (full γ).
In this table, TA is the annealing temperature, QT the quenching temperature, PT temperature of partitioning, Pt the time of partitioning, YS the yield strength, TS the tensile strength, UE the uniform elongation, TE the total elongation, HER the hole expansion ration according to the ISO standard, γ is the proportion of retained austenite in the structure, γ grain size is the average austenitic grain size, C % in γ is the amount of carbon the retained austenite, F is the amount of ferrite in the structure and M+B is the amount of the sum of martensite and bainite in the structure.
In table I, example 10 is according to the invention and all properties are better than the minimal required properties. As shown in the figure its structure contains 11.2% of retained austenite and 88.8% of the sum of martensite and bainite.
Examples 1 to 6 which are related to samples annealed at an intercritical temperature show that even if the total elongation is greater than 14%, which is the case only for samples 4, 5 and 6, the hole expansion ratio is too low.
Examples 13 to 16 which are related to prior art i.e. to sheets that were not quenched under the Ms point (QT is above the Ms point and PT is equal to QT), show that with such heat treatment, even if the tensile strength is very good (above 1220 MPa), the yield strength is not very high (below 780) when the annealing is intercritical and the formability (hole expansion ratio) is not sufficient (below 30%) in all cases.
Examples 7 to 12 which are all related to samples which were annealed at a temperature higher than Ac3 i.e. the structure was completely austenitic, show that the only way to reach the targeted properties is a quenching temperature 300° C. (+/−10) and a partitioning temperature 450° C. (+/−10). With such conditions, it is possible to obtain a yield strength greater than 850 MPa and even greater than 950 MPa, a tensile strength greater than 1180 MPa, a total elongation greater than 14% and a hole expansion ratio greater than 30%. Example 17 shows that a partitioning temperature higher than 470° C. does not allow obtaining the targeted properties.
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