The Effects of Process Temperatures on the Microstructure and Tensile Properties of Warm-Stamped Nb-Bearing Medium-Mn Steel

The effects of process temperatures for warm stamping, such as annealing (T_ann), austenitizing (T_aus), and stamping temperatures (T_s), on the tensile properties of Nb-bearing medium-Mn (5.9 wt pct) steel were investigated. The cold-rolled tensile specimens were first annealed at 650 °C to 750 °C, austenitized at 650 °C to 900 °C, held at T_s (500 °C to 700 °C), and then air-cooled to room temperature. Of the three process temperatures, only T_aus significantly influenced the tensile properties of medium-Mn steel; in the T_aus range of 650 °C to 900 °C, the amount of variation in yield strength (YS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and total elongation (TE) were 555 MPa, 570 MPa, and 20 pct, respectively. Particularly, when the specimens were austenitized at 730 °C to 790 °C, high YS (1060 to 1100 MPa), UTS (1760 to 1795 MPa), and TE (10.0 to 11.7 pct) were obtained due to fine-grained martensite embedded with nano-sized Nb carbides. The Nb-bearing medium-Mn specimen was successfully warm-stamped into a T-part of a B-pillar prototype at 600 °C without any cracks after austenitized at 750 °C for 5 minutes, and then air-cooled to room temperature. The warm-stamped Nb-bearing medium-Mn steel revealed the higher TE (~ 9.3 pct) than the hot-stamped 30MnB5 steel (5.3 pct) at the similar level of UTS (1855 to 1900 MPa).