• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.331-337
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• 2009

To lower the annealing temperature and the deviation of the mechanical properties of bake hardening steels, high purity steels were investigated. The steels were characterized by treating at low recrystallization temperature. It was confirmed that the strengthening originated from the solid solution of carbon and the ferrite grain refinement by fine MnS precipitates as carbon and sulfur contents increased in high purity steels. However, it was observed that there was no more increase of strength in steels containing over 40 ppm of carbon. It was considered that the excess carbon formed either the carbon cluster or the low temperature unstable carbides which had the negligible effect on the strengthening because they were reported to be highly coherent with the matrix. The carbon cluster and unstable carbides could be transformed to the stable cementite during bake hardening treatment. MnS was not observed in the high purity steel containing 5 ppm S, resulting in very coarse recrystallized grains and good ductility. As sulfur content increased, the recrystallized grain size decreased due to the formation of the fine MnS precipitates.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2009

The precipitation behavior of solute carbon and nitrogen strongly affects the mechanical properties of low-carbon automotive panel. In the present study, the effects of aluminum and solute nitrogen on the bake hardenability and strain aging of extremely low-carbon steel with carbon content below 15 ppm has been investigated. The ferrite grain size and distribution of precipitates were varied with the amount of aluminum content of 0.003 to ~ 0.100 wt% in a constant solute carbon and nitrogen. With increasing the aluminum content, the ferrite grain size is increased and strain aging is delayed. The strain aging is also delayed by increasing the annealing temperature, although the ferrite grain size is not much changed.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.609-616
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• 2008

Conventional bake-hardenable(BH) steels should be annealed at higher temperatures because of the addition of Ti or/and Nb which forms carbides and raises recrystallization start temperature. In this study, the development of new BH steels without Ti or Nb addition has been reviewed. The new BH steels have nearly same mechanical properties as the conventional BH steels even though it is annealed at lower temperature. The steels also show smaller deviation of the mechanical properties than that of the conventional BH steels because of the conarol of solute carbon content during steel making processes. The deviation of mechanical properties in conventional BH steels is directly dependent on the deviation of solute carbon which is greatly influenced by the amount of the carbide formers in conventional BH steels. Less alloy addition in the newly developed BH steels gives economical benefits. By taking the advantage of sulfur and/or nitrogen which scarenge in Interstitial-Free or conventional BH steels, fine manganese sulfides or nano size copper sulfides were designed to precipitate, and result in refined ferrite grains. Aluminum nitrides used as a precipitation hardening element in the developed steels were also and resull in fine and well dispersed. As a result, the developed steels with less production cost and reduced deviation of mechanical properties are under commercial production. Note that the developed BH steels are registered as a brand name of MAFE(R) and/or MAF-E(R).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.322-325
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• 2007

Dent resistance is an important characteristic to avoid damage on automotive outer panels. From a practical point of view, dents can be caused in a number of ways. Considering doors as an example, denting can occur from stone impacts or from the careless opening of an adjacently parked vehicle door. Denting can occur where the door surface is smooth and may not have sufficient curvature to resist dent. These exterior body parts are designed to improve dent resistance using a combination of work hardening and bake hardening. In brief, dent is affected by the shape of the parts and the material properties such as yield strength, strain and thickness. In this work, forming of door outer panel is investigated by Taguchi method. Main parameters are yield strength, thickness, blank size, blank holding force and so on. For the given value of design parameters, forming analysis of the thirty six cases are carried out according to L18 orthogonal array. After comparing the performance by simple conversion of simulation results into dent resistance, the final suggestion of the forming parameters is verified for the best improvement of dent resistance.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.16 no.4 s.94
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• pp.254-259
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• 2007

Dent resistance is an important characteristic to avoid damage on automotive outer panels. From a practical point of view, dents can be caused in a number of ways. Considering doors as an example, denting can occur from stone impacts or from the careless opening of an adjacently parked vehicle door. Denting can occur where the door surface is smooth and may not have sufficient curvature to resist dent. These exterior body parts are designed to improve dent resistance using a combination of work hardening and bake hardening. In brief, dent is affected by the shape of the parts and the material properties such as yield strength, strain and thickness. In this work, forming of door outer panel is investigated by Taguchi method. Main parameters are yield strength, thickness, blank size, blank holding force and so on. For the given value of design parameters, forming analysis of the eighteen cases are carried out according to L18 orthogonal array. After comparing the performance by simple conversion of simulation results into dent resistance, the final suggestion of the forming parameters is verified for the optimal improvement of dent resistance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.45-52
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• 2004

Continuing pressure for the weight reduction of vehicles and improvement of collision safety is driving the development of new high strength steel with excellent formability. The formable high strength steels which have excellent drawability have been developed and applied to the complicated inner panels. Although BH steel have mainly occupied the material market for outer panels, it is challenged by DP steel which have low yield strength and good bake hardenability. The advanced high strength steel, TRIP steels and DP steels which have excellent formability are new alternatives to conventional HSLA steel for structural parts such as members and pillars. HSLA steels also have been used for automotive bumper reinforcements due to their high yield ratio. Higher grade complex phase steel(CP) were developed for bumper reinforcements by addition of precipitation hardening to transformation strengthened steel. The usage of the advanced high strength steel ale increasing and will become the main material in structural parts near future. This paper describes the features of newly developed high strength cold rolled steels for automobiles.