UDC

669.14.122.2.153:621.785.3:539.5

Development by Box-annealing

of Bake-hardenable Process*

Al-killed

Steel

Sheet

By

Atsuki

OKAMOTO,**

Masashi

TAKAHASHI

** and

Takao

HINO***

Synopsis The bake-hardenable cold-rolled steel sheets for the outer panels of auto-bodies exhibiting an excellent resistance to the denting have been developed the box-annealingprocess, by examining the effectsof chemical in compositions and box-annealingconditions on the bake-hardenabilityand on Snoekpeak height of Al-killed steels. It has beenfound that lowering the total carbon content to less than 0.02% or raising the annealing temperature to air intercritical range bears a bake-hardenablesteel sheet in the box-annealing process. Additions of silicon and phosphorusand reduction of manganeseare alsofound to increase the bake-hardenability. The bake-hardeningis due to the strain aging caused by the solute carbon of approximately10 ppm. Furthermore,it is shown that the bake-hardenable steel sheets can be successfully manufactured in steel mills and exhibits non-aging quality as well as the high r-value.

after room temperature aging and thereby it is in danger of stretcher strain. Though the continuously annealed dual phase steel is also bake-hardenable,4) it exhibits poor r-value and too high strength. As the slow heating of Al-killed steel is the most suitable annealing process to produce a sheet with the high r-value, we have tried to develop a bakehardenable Al-killed steel by the box-annealing process controlling the solute carbon content.

II.

Effect of Chemical Compositions nealing Temperature

and An-

I.

Introduction

Since the continuous casting machines have pervaded to Japanese steel works, most of the cold-rolled steel sheets for outer panels of auto-bodies have been made by the box-annealed Al-killed steel sheets, because they show non-aging property, high r-value and low yield strength and, as the results, exhibit superior formability to the conventional rimmed or capped steel sheets. Recently, use of the thinner panels has been attempted for the weight reduction of the auto-bodies. In order to maintain the same dent-resistance with the thinner sheet, high strength steels must be applied to the panels, because their denting can be avoided by the increase in their yield strength.l,2~ The rephosphorized Al-killed steel with the tensile strength of 400 MPa has been one of the steels anticipated, because it shows high r-value and high strength and is produced at a low cost. However, its applications for the stamping operations resulted in the poor shapefixability of the formed panel. It means that the steel does not fit closely to the stamping die and causes the surface deflection to the panel because of its high yield strength. Therefore the steel with low yield strength before the stamping and high yield strength in the finished panel is required.2~ As the steel is paint-baked for nearly 20 min at above 170C after the stamping, the bake-hardenable steel is expected to be valid for the gauge reduction without spoiling the dent-resistance of the outer panels. The conventional rimmed steel is known to be bake-hardenable3~ because it contains free nitrogen of nearly 20 ppm. However, it is inadequate for the outer panels because it shows yield point elongation
*

1. Materials and ExperimentalProcedures Eighteen steels were vacuum-melted in laboratory furnace. Their chemical compositions are shown in Table 1. The basal steel (steel C 1) exhibits the chemical composition of commercial low carbon Alkilled steel sheet. The steel C l2 exhibits that of commercial rimmed steel sheet. The steels were forged and then hot-rolled from 20 mm to 2.8 mm in thick by five passes. The steels were soaked for 30 min at 1 250C before hot-rolling and cooled rapidly with spray to room temperature immediately after the hot-rolling. The finishing temperature was nearly 900C. After the cooling, the steels were reheated to 450C, soaked for 30 min and then furnace-cooled in order to precipitate carbon as cementites. Then they were pickled and cold-rolled to 0.8 mm thick with the reduction of 71 %. The annealings were conducted in an electric furnace for 4 h at 680, 710 or 740C, with the heating rate of 40C/h and the cooling rate of 80C/h. The annealed steels were temper-rolled by an elongation of 1.5%, and then following examinations were conducted by using JIS No. 5 specimen. 1. Room-temperature Aging Tensile testings were carried out for steels immediately after the temper-rolling and after the accelerated aging treatment at 50C for 30 days. The treatment is called A.A.T. hereafter. The steel with the yield point elongation (Y.P.E.) of less than 0.7% was judged as substantially non-aging quality. The changes in yield strength and elongation during A.A.T. were examined also. 2. Bake-hardenability The specimens of the temper-rolled steels were stretched in tension to an elongation of 2%, immersed

** ***

Based on the paper presented to the symposium of the 100th ISIJ Meeting, October 1980, at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, (published in Tetsu-to-Hagane, 66 (1980), A209, in Japanese). English manuscript received April 1, 1981. Central Research Laboratories, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Nishinagasu-hondori, Amagasaki 660. Head Office, Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd., Kitahama, Higashi-ku, Osaka 541.

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Table

1.

Chemical

compositions

of

specimens.

(wt %)

in oil bath for the soaking period of 20 min at 170C, and then stretched to the fracture. The pre-straining and the heating at 170C simulates the stamping operation and the paint-baking process, respectively. The work hardenability with 2 % strain and the bakehardenability were measured as shown in Fig. 1. For the examination of the relation between the bake-hardenability and the room temperature aging property, the basal steel C 1 was also annealed at continuous annealing cycles which involved the rapid heating to 700C and the air-cooling with the overaging treatments at 400C for various periods. Relation between Snoek peak height and the bakehardenability was also examined for several steels annealed at various heat cycles. In addition to the above-mentioned three box-annealing cycles, the cooling rates from 740C to room temperature were varied in the range between 20C/h and 200C/h, and moreover on their cooling stages water-quenching from 300C was conducted in order to vary the amount of solute carbon. Then their bake-hardenabilities and Snoek peak heights were measured. The Snoek peak of internal friction was measured by transversal vibration method with the test piece of 10 mm wide and 120 mm long. The frequency was nearly 330 Hz. The peak temperature, TTp, was nearly 100C. Carbon in solution was estimated by using the following equation modified by Aoki et a1.5~for the transversal vibration measurement of commercial sheet steels: C (wt%) = 0.0044 x Tpx Q;

Fig.

1.

Measurement work-hardenability

of

bake-hardenability by tensile testing.

(4Y.S.)

and

2. Results The effects of chemical compositions and annealing temperature on the bake-hardenability are shown in Fig. 2. The Y.P.E. after A.A.T. for the steels annealed at 740C is also shown in the figure. It is obvious that when the steel contains normal carbon content, the annealing at above Al temperature, that is an intercritical annealing at 740C, is necessary to show the bake-hardenability of more than 40 MPa. When the steel is annealed at a subcritical temperature, decrease of carbon content to less than 0.02% gives larger bake-hardenability. For the three annealing temperatures, increase of silicon or phosphorus contents gives larger bake-hardenability while increase of manganese or chromium content gives smaller bake-hardenability to the steels. Within them,
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the effect of manganese on the bake-hardenability of the intercritically annealed steel is remarkably large. The effect of aluminum content is not large as far as the steel contains enough aluminum to combine nitrogen as aluminum nitride. However, when aluminum is not added, the steel shows large bake-hardenability of more than 70 MPa, due to the presence of interstitial nitrogen. The Y.P.E, after A.A.T. is less than 0.7% for steels containing enough aluminum, while it is larger than 2% for the steel without aluminum. The effects of sulfur, nitrogen, boron, copper and niobium contents on the bake-hardenability were investigated, but no appreciable effect was observed. Photograph 1 shows optical micrographs of the annealed steels. The cementite particles are coarsened slightly as the annealing temperature rises from 680 to 710C. A remarkable change in the morphology of the cementite occurs as the annealing temperature surpasses the Al temperature. This is due to the existence of austenite phase as the absorbing sites for carbon during the soaking period. The distinct variations in the morphology of ce-

mentite with chemical compositions were not recognized except for carbon and manganese. The effect of manganese content is shown in Photos. 1(d) and (e). The cementite or pearlite particles are finely dispersed in the high manganese steel. The pearlite was more often observed in high manganese steel also. These effects of manganese are possibly due to the stability of austenite phase with manganese. The relation between the bake-hardenability and the room temperature aging property is shown in Fig. 3 including the results of steel C 1 annealed at the continuous annealing cycles. The yield point elongation (Y.P.E.) after A.A.T. increases with the increase in the bake-hardenability. It implies that both properties are caused by a similar reaction, that is strain aging by carbon in solution. However, steel C l2 which corresponds with a rimmed steel exhibits larger Y.P.E. than the other Al-killed steels with the same bake-hardenability, which indicates that the strain aging by carbon gives rise to a smaller Y.P.E. than that by nitrogen does. The figure also suggests that the maximum bake-hardenability with the Y.P.E. of

Fig. 2.

Effect of chemical
elongation point

compositions after aging

and treatment

annealing at 50C,

temperature for steels

on cooled

the at

bake-hardenability 80C/h from the

and

the

yield

anneals.

Photo.

1.

Optical

micrographs

of

annealed

steels,

showing

the

morpholo

gies

of cementite

particles.

(Picral etch)

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less than 0.7% after the room temperature aging is approximately 60 MPa for both the box and continuously annealed Al-killed steels. Figure 4 shows relation between the bake-hardenability and the decrease in total elongation by A.A.T. after temper rolling. It is clear that the decrease in total elongation by the room temperature aging is inevitable in the bake-hardenable steel sheets. The increase in yield strength by A.A.T. after temper rolling was examined also. However, no remarkable

correlation with the bake-hardenability was recognized. The relation between the bake-hardenability and Snoek peak height is shown in Fig. 5. It is obvious that the bake-hardenability is mainly controlled by the solute carbon in steel. In general, the bake-hardenability of more than 40 MPa is attained by the 10 ppm carbon tion between compositions in solution. In the figure, the correlathe two values differs with the chemical of the steel. Addition of silicon or phos-

phorus to the basal steel gives larger bake-hardenability with the same Snoek peak height and, on the contrary, the increase in manganese or carbon content decreases the bake-hardenability. The result implies that the solute carbon calculated from Snoek peak height is not entirely equivalent to the carbon which causes the bake-hardenability.

III.

Effect of Annealing in Solution

Conditions

on Carbon

Fig.

3.

Relation after aging

between treatment

bake-hardenability at 50C for 3 days.

and

Y.P.E.

1. Materials and ExperimentalProcedure On the basis of the former results, three Al-killed steels were melted in an oxygen converter and cast continuously into slabs. Their chemical compositions are shown in Table 2. They are the low manganese and rephosphorized Al-killed steels with the different carbon contents. The addition of silicon was limited to small amounts to avoid the surface imperfections after box-annealing. In the steel making of steels A 1 and A2, the vacuum-degassing was conducted with DH machine to lower the carbon contents. The slabs were hot-rolled to 2.8 mm in thick with the coiling temperature of 550C in steel works. The hot-rolled steels were pickled, cold-rolled to 0.8 mm

Fig.

4.

Relation 3 days.

between

bake-hardenability by aging treatment

and decrease at 50C, for

Fig.

5.

Relation hardenability cal

between

Snoek

peak steels

height with

and

bakechemi-

in total elongation

for various

different

compositions.

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and then annealed in laboratories. The heating rate and the soaking time were fixed to 40C/h and 4 h, respectively. The annealing temperature ranged from 660 to 760C and the cooling rate was also varied from 10C/h to air-cooling. The annealed samples were processed to measure Snoek peak height of internal friction by the transversal vibration method. 2. Results Relations between the annealing conditions and Snoek peak height are shown in Fig. 6. For steel Al containing 0.01 % carbon, large amount of carbon is in solution even after the steel is cooled slowly at the rate of 10C/h. While in steel Bl containing 0.06% carbon, both the intercritical annealing and the cooling at the rate of 80C/h is necessary to hold a sufficient amount of carbon in solution. As the cooling rate of tight-coil annealing is in the range of 10 and 20C/h and that of open-coil annealing is nearly 80C/h and, moreover, the tight-coil annealing at an intercritical temperature is in danger of sticking, the open-coil annealing furnace is recommended with steel B 1 to manufacture the bake-hardenable steel. Iv. Mill Manufacturing The three hot rolled steels of which chemical compositions are shown in Table 2 were pickled, coldrolled, box-annealed and then temper-rolled in steel works. The elongation of the temper-rolling ranged from 0.8 to 1.2%. The box-annealing conditions and the mechanical properties of the steels manufactured are shown in Table 3. The typical mechanical properties of the conventional deep drawing quality steel
Table 2.

Chemical compositions of verter. (wt%)

steels

melted

in

con-

is also shown in the table for comparison. The developed steels exhibit higher yield and ultimate tensile strengths, lower total elongation and larger bakehardenability, maintaining high r- and n-values than the D.D.Q, steels. The room temperature aging behavior of steel A2 at 30C is shown in Fig. 7. In contrast to that of a commercial rimmed steel sheet, either the age-hardening behavior or the reappearance of Y.P.E. is scarcely observed in steel A2. Small increase in the yield strength and small decrease in the elongation are observed only at the initial stage of the aging in the steel. On the process to measure the bake-hardenability of the three steels, the pre-strained tensile specimens were heat treated for various periods and at different temperatures in an oil bath. The effects of heat treatment on 4Y. S., that is a bake-hardenability, and on 4U.T.S. for steel A2 are shown in Fig. 8. By the heat treatment at 170C for 20 min, the 4Y.S. of 40 MPa and the 4U.T.S. of 20 MPa were obtained, but the hardenabilities were not influenced by the small decrease in the temperature and the aging time. The figure suggests that there are two processes in the age hardening. One is that below 120C and the other is that above 170C. The heat of the paintbaking seems to be sufficient to complete former process but not to reach the threshold of the latter process. The relations between time and temperature exhibiting the same 4Y.S. of 30 MPa for the three steels are shown in Fig. 9. Three straight lines of the similar slopes were obtained below 80C. The activation energy was calculated from the slope to be 20.5 kcal/mol, which is approximately equal to that for the diffusion of carbon. The figure indicates that the increase in 4Y. S. is faster in the order of steels A2, B 1 and Al, which implies that the amount of carbon in solution is larger in that order. V. Discussion 1. Effect of CarbonContenton the Bake-hardenability The relation between the carbon content and the

Fig. Effect height

6. of anneal for two steels ing low with conditions manganese different on Snoek and carbon peak

rephoscon-

phorized tents.

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Table

3.

Results

of mill production.

(JIS No. 5 specimen)

Fig.

9.

Relation the same

between AY.S.

time

and

temperature for three

to

show

of 30 MPa steel sheets.

box-annealed

bake-hardenable Fig . 7. Room enable rimmed temperature Al-killed steel sheet aging steel behaviors sheet and of a bake-harda commercial mill.

manufactured

in steel

Fig.

8.

Effect of aging time and temperature after 2 % prestraining on JY. S. and increase in ultimate tensile strength, 4U.T.S., of steel A2, open coil annealed.

box-annealing temperature required for manufacturing a bake-hardenable Al-killed steel is summarized in the Fe-C diagram and shown by the shaded areas

A and B in Fig. 10. The typical morphologies of the cementite particles after the annealing are compared in Photo. 2. In the conventional process, the steel containing nearly 0.05% carbon is usually box-annealed at a subcritical temperature corresponding to the area C. In this case, the carbon of more than 100 ppm is dissolved into the ferrite matrix at the soaking period. However, most of the carbon is precipitated as cementite at the slow cooling stage because there exist many cementite particles, as shown in Photo. 2(c), which act as the precipitation sites for carbon. When the steel is annealed in the intercritical temperature, in the area B, the cementite particles exist only on the ferrite grain boundaries and thereby the number of precipitation sites is remarkably decreased. As the result, the steel can retain some amount of the carbon in solution after the box-annealing if the cooling rate is controlled to nearly 80C/h. When the total carbon content of the steel is decreased to the area A, as no cementite particle exists at the soaking period, some special grain boundaries are the only possible sites for carbon to precipitate, as speculated from Photo. 2(a), so that the large amount of carbon is kept in solution even after the slow cooling. These effects of the morphology of cementites on the solute carbon have also been suggested in the previous works. Butler6~ has examined the effect of cooling rate from austenite to room temperature on the carbon in solution and found that the increase in the distance between carbide particles or the grain

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Fig.

10,

Schematic carbon

presentation content and

of

the

relation

between to

nitrogen. However, the details of the experimental procedure have not been shown. These former works have suggested the presence of a particular relation between the microstructure and carbon in solution, although most of their results have been obtained with rimmed steels and duplicated with the effect of nitrogen. As a rimmed steel sheet is known to retain larger amount of carbon in solution than an Al-killed steel,8'26~ more efforts to increase the solute carbon are required to manufacture a bakehardenable Al-killed steel sheet for the practical use. The controls in the amounts of manganese, silicon and phosphorus beside carbon are some of those efforts. 2. Effectof SubstitutionalElements The addition of silicon or phosphorus and the reduction of the manganese content in steels are very valid to increase the bake-hardenability of box-annealed steels, as shown in Fig. 2. These effects by the substitutional elements can be caused by several means, the most likely of which are : 1) changing the equilibrium solubility limit of carbon in ferrite, thereby changing the driving force for carbon to precipitate as cementite at about 300C in the cooling stage; 2) changing the activation energy to form a new lattice of cementite in the cooling stage; 3) changing the apparent diffusion rate of carbon in ferrite; and 4) changing the morphology of cementite especially in the intercritically annealed steel, thereby changing the nucleation sites. There does not seem to be any reliable datum for the effect of alloying elements on the solubility limit of carbon in ferrite.9~ For example, as an effect of silicon on the solubility limit of carbon, Leak et al.10~ have reported that silicon decreases the solubility limit and, on the other hand, Borchers and Konigtl) have obtained the opposite result, though the both researchers have measured it by the internal friction method. Most of the research indicates that manganese decreases the solubility,11-13)though there exist the opposite results14~also. As the carbon is largely supersaturated in the cooling stage, the authors consider that the difference in the equilibrium solubility limit of carbon is not the predominant cause to change the amount of retained carbon in solution. Leslie15~has examined the quench aging process of low carbon iron containing 3 % silicon or 0.45% manganese, finding that silicon raises and manganese lowers the aging temperature at which the metastable carbide appears. He has then attributed these effects of silicon and manganese to the changes in the carbon activity by their additions. Fujita et al.16~have also found that the addition of silicon to 0.02% and 0.2% decreases the precipitation rate of carbon in quench aging process. They interpreted the phenomenon by the temporary trapping of migrating carbon atoms by silicon atoms. In the author's limited knowledge, it seems that silicon delays and manganese accelerates the precipitation of carbon from the supersaturated solid solution.

box-annealing steels.

temperature

manufacture

bake-hardenable

Photo.

2.

Optical showing

micrographs the morphologies with

of

box-annealed of 10. cementite

steel

sheets, in

particles

correspondence

Fig.

diameter retains the larger amount of carbon in solution after the slow cooling from the anneal. He has also showed6~that the rise in the hot strip coiling temperature from 566 to 677C increases the aging index of a box-annealed Al-killed steel sheet from 1.4 to 23 MPa, due to the change in carbide dispersion. Richards and Barrett7~ have investigated the effect of the hot strip coiling temperature of a rimmed steel on the carbon in solution after continuous annealing and obtained the results that the higher the coiling temperature, the larger the carbide particles, the greater the intercarbide particle spacing and the higher the carbon retained in solution. As for the effect of total carbon content in steel, Takashina and Harada8 have indicated that the largest amount of carbon is retained in solution after the box-annealing at 700 or 760C of a rimmed steel containing 0.023% carbon besides

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These effects of substitutional elements are most probably correlated with the fact that the cementite can concentrate large amount of manganese to stabilize itself,17,18> while it excludes silicon.15,18,19)In order to increase the volume fraction of cementite, the diffusive silicon away from the growing particles is necessary.15) Though there is no available report on phosphorus for the partition between ferrite and cementite, the same effect as silicon can be expected for it. Moreover, as phosphorus segregates to ferrite grain boundaries in the soaking period and occupies the sites favorable for carbon to precipitate, the precipitation of carbon is believed to be suppressed with the increase in the phosphorus content. It is reported by Kawamoto et a1.20) that the addition of phosphorus increases the bake-hardenability of box-annealed Al-killed steel sheet. The morphology of cementite particles may play an important role especially for the intercritically annealed steels. The large effect of manganese content on the bake-hardenability of the intercritically annealed steels, shown in Fig. 2, is mainly attributed to the smaller intercarbide particle spacing in high manganese steel (C8), as shown in Photo. 1(e).
3. Relation Height between the Bake-hardenability and Snoek Peak

In the author's limited knowledge, these two effects of the alloying elements are thought to have influenced the different correlation between the bakehardenability and Snoek peak height. The effect of the elements on the equilibrium solution limit of carbon in ferrite at 170C can be negligible, because that for pure iron with Fe3C at 170C is reported as approximately 0.5 ppm,22) amount of solute carbon that is 10 ppm. which is far less than the in the bake-hardenable steel,

A good correlation between the bake-hardenability and Snoek peak height shown in Fig. 5 indicates that the former property is mainly controlled by the carbon in solution. However, there is a little difference in the relationship among the steels. The higher the manganese or carbon content is, the smaller the bakehardenability at the same Snoek peak height is, while the higher the silicon or phosphorus content is, the larger it is. Since the most of the data shown in Fig. 5 are for the intercritically annealed steels, the effect of the cementite morphology on the bake-hardenahility must be taken into account in order to understand the effect of manganese and carbon precisely. The reason why the larger bake-hardenability was obtained with the same Snoek peak height for the steels containing silicon or phosphorus is uncertain. As the addition of silicon'" or phosphorus21) to a large amount broadens the Snoek peak, the resolution of Snoek peak is necessary to evaluate the amount of solute carbon. In this experiment, it was not conducted because the alloying amounts were small. As the result, the solute carbon is thought to be estimated less in the steels containing silicon or phosphorus. The effect of these elements on the stability of carbide must be taken into account also. As the binding energy of Fe3C, 0.42 eV,22) is a little lower than the interaction energy between carbon and dislocation, 0.5 eV,23) the resolution of carbide in the deformed steel is thought to have occurred, according to the stability of carbide. When the carbide contains manganese, it may hardly be resolved, because the carbide is stabilized by manganese. On the contrary, when the steel contains silicon or phosphorus, carbide can probably ability. be resolved to increase the bake-harden-

4. Compatibilityof Non-aging Property and Bake-hardenability As both the room temperature strain aging phenomenon and the bake-hardenability are controlled by the diffusion process of carbon to dislocations, the compatibility of non-aging and bake-hardenable properties must be discussed. The time-temperature relationship for the strain aging has been derived by Hundy.24) He has used the equation of Cottrell and Bilby25) to give the rate at which interstitial atoms segregate to dislocations as a function of temperature and diffusion coefficient. Hundy's relationship is roughly comprehended with the activation energy for the diffusion of carbon or nitrogen. Figure 11 shows the schematic time-temperature relationship of aging treatment to give the same yield point elongation after the same temper rolling. The lines which are not exactly straight are plotted by using Hundy's equation for carbon23);
log (ti/t2) = 4 400 (1 / T'1-1 / TT2) log (T1/ T'2) where t1 and t2 are times and T1 and T2 are absolute temperatures. The non-aging property means practically no yield point elongation after one month at 30C. The time-temperature relationship for it is described by line S in the figure. The accelerated aging treatment at 50C for 3 days used in the present experiment is also on the line. The large bakehardenability can be obtained when the yield point elongation appears after the heat treatment at 170C for 20 min. Its time-temperature relation is described by line B. It is important that line B locates at the longer time area of line S, that is non-aging area. A commercial galvanized steel sheet contains large amount of carbon in solution and thus shows both the room temperature aging property and the large bake-hardenability. While, a box-annealed Alkilled steel sheet exhibits no bake-hardenability and non-aging property. It is recognized from the figure that the control of solute carbon to the moderate amount for steel as to bring the start point of yield point elongation into the region between the lines S and B is necessary to manufacture a non-aging and bake-hardenable steel. The moderate amount of carbon in solution is thought to be nearly 10 ppm. The above discussion is based on the schematic strain aging phenomenon. Actually the time-temperature perature relationship does not hold good at high temand the type of pre-straining must be dif

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Fig. 11. Relation between to show diffusion obtained

time and temperature

for steels

the same yield point elongation by the of carbon atoms. Schematic diagram by the calculation of Hundy's equation.

ferent between the cases of the room temperature aging and the paint-baking. Figure 8 and its Arrhenius plot in Fig. 9 suggest that there are several stages of strain aging, one of which is below 120C and controlled by the simple diffusion of carbon, and the strain aging at a higher temperature is faster than that speculated in Fig. 11. This is advantageous to produce a non-aging bakehardenable steel. It is well known that the reappearance of yield point elongation is largely affected by the type of prestraining.3,27~ The temper rolling restricts its reappearance remarkably in comparison with the normal tensile deformation. Figure 12 shows the effect of pre-straining on the yield behavior of steel A2 after aging treatments at 50C. The received steel sheet had been temper-rolled to an elongation of 0.8% in steel works. The sheet was pre-strained in tension to 2 % or temper rolled to 1.5 % in laboratory before the aging treatments. It is clear that the reappearance of yield point elongation and the increase in yield strength are faster when the steel is pre-strained in tension. The stamping of steel sheet for outer-body panels of automobile is, in general, a sort of biaxial tensile deformations whose strains are around 2%. It is true especially at the exposed area. The denting is also the biaxial tensile deformation to increase the surface area. As the directions of stress applied at stamping and at denting are nearly equal, the authors believe that the bake-hardenability to value the improvement of dent-resistance of the panel by paintbaking is better measured by the uniaxial tensile testing to the same direction for the uniaxially 2 % prestrained tensile specimen than by tensile testing for the temper-rolled specimen. Above two considerations indicate that the nonaging and bake-hardenable steel sheet is produced in easier way than that expected from Fig. 11. PracTechnical Report

Fig.

12.

Effect behavior

of the type

of pre-straining

on the

yield

of steel A2, open-coil

annealed.

tically, its mass production in steel works by boxannealing has proved that it exhibits substantially non-aging quality. And now the steel with the ultimate tensile strength of more than 350 MPa is successfully used for outer body panels of automobiles. The steel can also be produced by controlling the amount of nitrogen in rimmed steel. However, the strain aging by nitrogen results in the larger yield point elongation than that by carbon as shown in Fig. 3. The more strict control in the amount of nitrogen can be required to produce a non-aging and bake-hardenable rimmed steel.

VI. Summary

and Conclusions

(1) The bake-hardenable and substantially nonaging Al-killed steel sheet with high r-value has been developed by the box-annealing process. The steel is expected to be applicable to the outer body panels of automobiles and exhibits both the sufficient form-

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ability and the dent-resistance. (2) The bake-hardenability is mainly due to the strain aging of carbon. The adjustment of the bakehardenability in the range of 35 and 60 MPa offers the non-aging quality to the box-annealed or continuously annealed steel. The adjustment corresponds to the control of carbon in solution to approximately 10 ppm. (3) There are two ways to retain carbon in solution after the box annealing. One is to decrease the total carbon content to less than 0.02%. Another is to raise the annealing temperature to intercritical range without changing the total carbon content and increase the cooling rate to nearly 80C/h. In the latter way, the open coil annealing furnace must be used. The relations between the carbon content and the annealing temperature is shown in Fig. 10. (4) The additions of silicon and phosphorus and the reduction in manganese content are also effective to increase the bake-hardenability of the box-annealed steel, while the addition of chromium decreases it. (5) The effects of the total carbon content and the annealing temperature on the bake-hardenability are correlated with the distance between cementite particles as the precipitation sites for carbon. The effect of the substitutional elements is ascribed mainly to the change in the activation energy to form and grow a new lattice of cementite in the cooling stage. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Dr. T. Yukitoshi and Dr. Y. Hayashi of Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. for their continued support and encouragement. They are also grateful to Messrs. S. Tsunematsu and S. Nakai of Wakayama and Kashima Steel Works for their cooperation in the mill productions.
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