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Hot stamped high-strength steel components for car bodies become increasingly important due to the need to save weight for multiple reasons such as fuel conservation regulations. Tribological systems in tools for hot stamping depend on process parameters and may include, e.g., mechanical and thermal loads as well as adhesive and abrasive wear. Furthermore, the process cycle time should be as short as possible due to economic reasons. Commonly used hot work tool steels mainly suffer from rather low wear resistance, whereas in terms of process cycle time, a high thermal conductivity is desired. Thus, solutions showing optimized combination of key properties for application in hot stamping such as wear resistance, high thermal conductivity, toughness, and hardening behavior need to be found. In this contribution, novel high thermal conductivity hot work tool steels, especially designed for application in hot stamping, are presented and some key properties are compared, e.g., to those of conventional hot work tool steels like 1.2367, which is commonly used in this application. Furthermore, tribological investigations are performed in laboratory tests according to ASTM G65 and G75 as well as a flat strip-drawing test setup using sheets of 22MnB5 under hot stamping conditions.

Abstract. Current challenges like increasing safety standards and reducing fuel consumption motivate lightweight construction in modern car bodies. Besides using lightweight workpiece materials like aluminum, hot stamping has been established as a key technology for producing safety relevant components. Producing hot stamped parts out of ultra-high strength steels offers the possibility to improve the crash performance. At the same time the weight of car structure is reduced by using thinner sheet thicknesses. In order to avoid oxide scale formation and ensure corrosion protection, AlSi coatings are commonly deposited on the sheet surfaces used for direct hot stamping. This workpiece coating has a critical impact on the tribological conditions within the forming process and, as a consequence, influences the quality of hot stamped parts as well as tool wear. AlSi coatings have been identified as major reason for adhesive wear, which represents the main wear mechanism in hot stamping. Within this study, the influence of the process parameters on adhesive wear are investigated in dependency of workpiece and tool temperatures, drawing velocities and contact pressures. The tribological behavior is analyzed based on strip drawing experiments under direct hot stamping conditions. The experiments are performed with AlSi coated 22MnB5 in contact with the hot working tool steel 1.2367. For analyzing the amount of adhesion on the friction jaws, the surfaces are characterized by optical measurements. The experiments indicate that higher workpiece temperatures cause severe adhesive wear on the tool surface, while an increase of drawing velocity or contact pressure led to reduced adhesion. The measured friction coefficients decreased with rising amount of adhesion and remained at a constant level after a certain adhesive layer was built up on the tool surface.

Hot stamping is a well-established technology for producing safety relevant components. The use of hot stamped components in modern car bodies offers the possibility of improving the crash performance while reducing the fuel consumption by using thinner sheet thicknesses. Hot stamped components are mainly produced out of the boron-manganese-steel 22MnB5. To avoid oxide scale formation during the heat treatment and the subsequent forming process AlSi coatings are applied on the workpiece surface. Due to the high forming temperatures, the use of lubricants is not suitable for the hot stamping process. Consequently, high friction and severe wear occur during the forming process and affect the resulting quality of hot stamped parts as well as the tool wear. In order to improve the part quality and increase the efficiency of industrial hot stamping applications, measures for reducing the tribological load during the forming have to be found. Within this study, the tool-sided impact on the tribological conditions is analyzed. Three different hot working tool steels were characterized based on strip drawing experiments under hot stamping conditions. Based on these investigations the tool steel characteristics hardness, thermal conductivity as well as chemical composition have been identified as possible influencing factors on the tribological conditions. Furthermore, the influence of the surface finish on the tribological performance was investigated by analyzing tool surfaces with three different roughness values and two PVD coatings. The experiments indicate a significant reduction of friction and wear due to application of PVD coatings while the tool roughness did not affect the tribological behavior under hot stamping conditions.

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