Abstract
The design concepts and properties of three unique high strength steel sheets developed utilising nanoengineering are reviewed. The first steel is developed by optimising the distribution of nanoprecipitates and exhibits low yielding ratio in spite of being strengthened by grain refinement and precipitation hardening. The second is the ferrite single phase tensile strength 780 MPa grade advanced high strength steel sheet utilising the thermally stable nanosized precipitates, which possesses significantly well balanced elongation and stretch flangeability. These two were already commercialised. The last is the ultrahigh strength steel, of which the formability is enhanced by optimising the combination of hard phases. The steel consists of bainite, retained austenite and tempered martensite and exhibits 35 of elongation with 1470 MPa of tensile strength. Although further optimisation of the composition and the processing are needed to produce and commercialise the steel, the results indicate that the approach has the potential to improve formability dramatically.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.