| Summary: | This rapport discusses a Bachelor's thesis conducted at Gestamp Hardtech in Luleå, a company that invented the press hardening technique and still today is one of the leading companies utilising this type of process. A method used in the manufacture of ultra-high strength steel components. The main use of press hardening is when forming sheet metal for the automotive industry, because of the very high resistance to deformation and in turn low weight parts made from this process can offer. The number of of body parts for cars made with this process is high but yet rising as the method is being advanced, the technique is highly advanced and requires both knowledge and process control to manage. The creation of soft zones is a big part of hot stamping. A soft zone is a part of a material with lower strength and hardness, which is achieved by lowering the cooling rate at a specific area of the piece, resulting in a product that is both hardened and soften. For this project, only the soft zones were focused on and not the relation between hardened zones, this was for the interest in having the same mechanical properties over the whole metal sheet used. The questions that this project will try to answer is the possibilities of introducing new materials that can be used in hot stamping with combination of building in soft zones in them. It will also deep dive in to each of the materials materials mechanical properties achieved when process and give data that in the future can be used to build other projects on. While the project is built on the standard used today on softer materials process parameters, a recipe more based on production experience and default setting in the manufacturing line, it will answer if these settings might still hold true for these materials and if not what kind of parameters are more preferred. The reason why this project is of interest is because the automotive industry today has a great desire in lowering weight of the vehicle without reducing the quality. This project is a big step in the ...
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