Advanced
High-Strength
Steels New Types
on the Block
The world’s steel companies
have worked with customers
to create new alloys with
mechanical properties and
performance characteristics
that just a decade or two ago
would have seemed
improbable, if not downright
impossible to achieve. Here’s
a roundup of some of those
alloys.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
28 METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2008
ome 40 years ago, the steel industry embarked on intensive research and devel-
S opment that produced a controlled rolling process that, combined with micro-
alloying, resulted in major breakthroughs in steel properties. Steels with small
amounts of aluminum, niobium, vanadium or titanium rolled at 880 C rather than
the conventional 1050 C resulted in high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels with ten-
sile strengths in the 350- to 650-MPa range, combined with good toughness. Next
came development of a process called CalSil treatment, by which the addition of sil-
icon and calcium to steels reduced sulphur content, bringing improved formabil-
ity both along and across the direction of rolling.
The next major breakthrough in steelmaking came in the mid-’90s when steel sup-
pliers further refined thermalmechanical processing, built new equipment such as
continuous-annealing lines, and began producing today’s advanced high-strength
steels (AHSS), with tensile strengths in the range of 440 to 980, with some steels now
offering 1400-MPa tensile strength. Within the next few years, industry analysts pre-
dict that as much as half of the steels in automobiles will be AHSS.
As AHSS products have begun to make a strong presence in the market, the
www.metalformingmagazine.com
amount of information on them—their
characteristics and properties, and tips
for forming and fabricating them—also
has increased. For example, the Inter-
national Iron and Steel Institute now
offers a publication titled Advanced
High Strength Steel Application Guide-
lines, available on its website,
www.worldautosteel.org. The publica-
tion, updated in September 2006, is a
must reference for any company work-
ing with AHSS. It describes the different
types of AHSS—dual-phase (DP),
transformation-induced plasticity
(TRIP), complex-phase (CP), marten-
sitic (MS), ferrite-bainitic (FB), twin-
ning-induced plasticity (TWIP), hot
formed (HF) and post-formed heat-
treatable (PFHT).
Also a must for your library is the
new Surface Vehicle Recommended
Practice SAE J2745 document (see the
sidebar to this article, page 32) issued in
July 2007 that categorizes and provides
the properties of AHSS automotive
sheet steels. The recommended practice
covers 13 cold-rolled AHSS types (six
DP alloys, three TRIP steels and four MS
steels) and seven more hot-rolled sheet
steels.
We contacted several of the world’s
steelmakers (in cooperation with the
International Iron and Steel Institute,
www.worldautosteel.org) to find out
what AHSS steels they have recently
developed and made available to the
market. What follows are brief descrip-
tions; additional information can be
found on each company’s website.
New Swedish Steels
Include Rollforming Alloys
Swedish steelmaker SSAB offers a
full lineup of dual-phase AHSS types
under its Docol brand name. Its six
Docol DP steels available for the U.S.
market have minimum tensile strength
to 145 ksi (1000 MPa). These cold-
rolled dual-phase steels find global auto-
motive applications in door beams,
bumper reinforcements and seat tracks.
SSAB offers the steels in sheet thick-
nesses of 0.5 to 2.0 mm in widths from
800 to 1500 mm, depending on steel
grade and thickness.
www.metalformingmagazine.com
As with other DP steels, Docol DP
types offer good formability, and at
more extreme levels of forming SSAB
recommends forming in the direction
transverse to the rolling direction rather
than in the longitudinal direction. Also,
when shearing or punching Docol DP,
cutting clearance is of primary con-
cern, says SSAB. It recommends a cut-
ting clearance of 10 to 12 percent of
sheet thickness for Docol DP steels.
SSAB also recently introduced AHSS
types for rollformers: Docol Roll, a pair
of cold-reduced high-strength steels
that SSAB claims represent the world’s
first AHSS alloys developed specifically
for rollforming. Their primary benefi-
cial mechanical property: a high ratio of
yield strength to tensile strength, which
means that stresses in highly formed
areas of a rollformed part are compa-
rable to the stresses in less-formed
regions. Small differences in residual
stresses over the entire part cross-section
reduce the tendency for bending and
twisting, resulting in dimensionally sta-
ble and flat profiles.
Another bonus with these steels,
according to SSAB, is their high level of
internal cleanliness—a minimal amount
of slag inclusions in the steel allow the
rollforming of very tight radii. Docol
Roll 800 (800-MPa minimum tensile
strength and 600-MPa minimum yield
strength) has a minimum bending
radius (for press forming) of 0.9 times
sheet thickness; Docol Roll 1000 (1000-
MPa minimum tensile strength and
850-MPa minimum yield strength) has
Strain versus n-Value for U.S. Steel’s Dual-Phase AHSS Alloys
0.30
Instantaneous n-value
0.20
0.10
0.00
0.00 0.05
True Strain
HSLA 340 Dual-Ten 600/590
Dual-phase steels such as the Dual-Ten family from U.S. Steel, illustrated here,
exhibit superior initial strain-hardening behavior when compared to high-strength
low-alloy (HSLA) steels.
a minimum bending radius (for press
forming) of 1.5 times sheet thickness.
SSAB stresses that these minimum
bending radii are valid for bending
processes and that in well-designed roll-
forming lines fabricators might achieve
much smaller radii.
The firm expects major break-
throughs in applications for Docol Roll
in automotive body and safety compo-
nents. www.ssab.com
U.S. Steel Talks Stamping,
Hydroforming
U.S. Steel Corp., stressing that it
develops new steels in partnership with
its automotive-industry customers, has
had its AHSS grades in production vehi-
cles since 1999. It offers hot-rolled dual-
phase steels under the brand name
Dual-Ten, with products available as
hot-dip galvanized (HDG Dual-Ten)
and hot-dip galvannealed (HDGA
Dual-Ten).
The Dual-Ten line, introduced in
2001 with the development of Dual-
Ten 590 (590-MPa tensile strength),
now comprises four alloys, with tensile
strengths from 590 to 980 MPa, the lat-
est to hit the market being Dual-Ten
980. Their high tensile-to-yield strength
ratio (1.7 to 1.8 typically) enables the
steels to undergo rapid strain hardening
at lower strain levels, says U.S. Steel.
This high strain-hardening behavior
enhances strain distribution during
stamping and, during hydroforming,
limits buckling during end feeding. In
comparison tests of Dual-Ten 600/590
0.10 0.15 0.20
Dual-Ten 500 Dual-Ten 780
METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2008 29
Advanced High-Strength Steels

and HSLA 340, the dual-phase steel
exhibited nearly a 20-percent increase in
draw-depth capability (using a T-chan-
nel test). www.uss.com
Nucor Increasing its Capacity
to Supply Galvanized AHSS
Nucor entered the AHSS arena in
2006 with the introduction of DP 590—
hot- and cold-rolled, galvanized and
galvannealed products (the firm does
not produce an uncoated cold-rolled
dual-phase steel).
Nucor’s Dual Phase 590 is produced
at its CSP (compact strip production)
facility in Berkeley, SC, in hot-rolled
form from 2.5 to 6.5 mm thick, and
cold-rolled hot-dip galvanized or gal-
vannealed sheet from 0.8 to 2.0 mm
thick. Compared to other DP590 grades
available, Nucor officials claim that its
process yields improved mechanical
properties—elongation, formability,
impact toughness and weldability to
name a few. For example, its hot-rolled
DP 590 offers an impact energy of 100
ft.-lb., reportedly more than twice that
of other DP 590 steels the company has
tested. Dual Phase 590 has a tensile
strength of 620 MPa, yield strength of
380 MPa, total elongation of 25 percent
and an n-value of 0.168.
Building on its success with Dual
Phase 590, Nucor recently launched
Dual Phase 780 (780 MPa minimum
tensile strength), also available hot- or
cold-rolled, galvanized or galvannealed.
Although the company can only pro-
duce hot-rolled dual-phase steels down
to 2.5 mm thick, it’s pursuing continu-
ous improvement at its mills so that it
will soon be able to produce lighter-
gauge hot-rolled products. And, later
this year Nucor will commission a new
galvanizing line at its facility in Decatur,
AL, to increase production capacity for
galvanized and galvannealed Dual Phase
590 and 780 in a variety of gauges and
widths.
Lastly, in its effort to provide metal-
formers with dual-phase steels with
optimum formability, specifically for
stretch-flange applications, Nucor
recently introduced NuPhase 800 steels.
A multi-phase steel similar to Dual
Phase 780, NuPhase 800 (offered in
thicknesses of 0.8 to 2.0 mm) has a
slightly different microstructure, says a
Nucor official. It’s recommended for
applications where other AHSS of
comparable strength would not pro-
vide adequate formability. Its mechan-
ical properties: 800 to 980 MPa tensile
strength; 680 to 850 MPa yield
strength; 10 percent elongation.
www.nucor.com
ArcelorMittal Creates
New R & D Entity
When Arcelor and Mittal merged
several months ago, the company quick-
ly formed its Automotive Worldwide
Business Unit, marrying the firm’s two
research and development groups. The
new unit, stocked with more than 400
engineers and technicians devoted to
automotive-related R & D projects, aims
to develop breakthrough steel products
with quick speed to market, in addition
to offer technical support.
New from ArcelorMittal Automo-
tive is the press-hardened boron steel
Usibor 1500 (maximum 0.25 C, 0.35 Si,
1.4 Mn, 0.30 Cr and 0.005o B. Similar to
SSAB’s Docol Boron 2/Domex 024 B
and Boron 04/Domex 044 B, Usibor
This ArcelorMittal cold-rolling mill in Brazil reduces the thickness of flat steel
products by rolling at room temperature.
1500 offers a tensile strength to 1500
MPA. The firm recommends Usibor
1500 as a replacement for many auto-
motive components currently formed of
dual-phase steels, including front- and
rear-end rail extensions, A-, B- and
hinge pillars and B-pillar reinforce-
ments, and door and bumper beams. It’s
offered cold- or hot-rolled, and joins the
firm’s long list of AHSS steels, including
multiphase alloys (ferrite plus bainite
plus pearlite, with maximum 0.15 C) to
1200-MPa tensile strength, dual-phase
steels, and TRIP steels to 980 MPa. In
fact, just entering the testing phase late
in 2007 was the firm’s newest TRIP
steel, TRIP-Dual 1200, an advanced
ultra-high-strength bainitic steel.
Also, last spring ArcelorMittal, at a
pair of European automotive confer-
ences, reported results of its MARS
(mass-saving approach to rear suspen-
sion) project, led by its automotive-
applications research center in France,
to study the impact of ultra-high-
strength steels in multi-link rear-sus-
pension systems. Replacing high-
strength and very-high-strength steels
with the firm’s multiphase steels
(MP800 and MP800 HY), as well as a
dual-phase steel (DP 980 HY, 675 MPa

30 METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2008 www.metalformingmagazine.com

Advanced High-Strength Steels

yield strength, 1010 MPa tensile Japanese-Made Alloy High hole-expanding ratio (HER)—
strength), sliced the weight of the axle by Offers Improved this DP steel combines elongation and
21 percent, with a negligible cost Stretch-Flange Formability stretch-flange formability and has a
increase. www.arcelormittal.com Japan’s JFE Steel Corp. has offered medium yield point, medium elonga-
dual-phase cold-rolled advanced-high- tion and medium HER, recommended
strength sheet steels in the 780 to 1470- for bumper reinforcements, seat frames
SAE Publishes MPa tensile-strength range for several and seat rails.
years, offering good press formability, Extra-high HER—this steel has a
AHSS Sheet Steel spot weldability and stable mechanical high yield point, low elongation and
Specification properties, to improve vehicle crashwor- high HER, offering stretch-flange
Surface Vehicle Recommended thiness and fuel efficiency. In 2004 the formability equal to that of the 590-
Practice, document SAE J2745, issued last firm introduced a type with 980-MPa MPa-tensile-strength material. JFE says
July, categorizes and provides mechanical
properties of advanced high-strength auto-
tensile strength, in three variations, that that the steel allows designers to reduce
motive sheet steels. It incorporates dual- reportedly offers improved elongation the weight of seat frames while also
phase, martensitic types and TRIP steels. and stretch-flange formability, due to reducing part-manufacturing costs by
better control of microscopic-crack eliminating the welding of multiple
AHSS Grades—Cold-Rolled propagation during forming. parts. www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en
Min. tensile Min. yield JFE manufactures AHSS steels using
strength, MPa strength, MPa its continuous annealing process with Germans Develop
Dual-phase water quenching (it refers to the process Air-Hardening Steels
440 250 as CAL-WQ). The steels, particularly Salzgitter, Germany, is home to
490 290 the 980 type, have found wide acceptance Salzgitter Flachstahl, the largest steel
590 340
690 550 in seat-frame parts, to allow designers of subsidiary in the Salzgitter Group. In
780 420 seat structures to use the seat itself to 2006, the plant’s 4500 employees pro-
980 550 support impact during collisions. duced some 4.6 million tons of steel.
TRIP steels The JFE line of AHSS steels features The mill works closely with the firm’s
590 380 five products, with tensile strengths of technical customer-support partner,
690 400
780 420 780, 980, 1180, 1370 and 1470 MPa, Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung, to
Martensitic steels with yield strengths from 430 to 1200 develop target-oriented solutions for
900 700 MPa and a carbon equivalent from 0.09 product and process optimization in
1100 860 to 0.23. The three new 980 types: cooperation with users and customers.
1300 1030 Low yield ratio—a high-ductility This close cooperation, according to
1500 1200
DP steel for stretch-formed parts that company officials, yields customer-ori-
features a low yield point, high elonga- ented and application-related product
AHSS Grades—Hot-Rolled tion and low hole-expanding ratio, rec- development.
Min. tensile Min. yield
strength, MPa strength, MPa ommended for body-in-white struc- An example of this comes with
Dual-phase
tural components such as pillars. Salzgitter’s recent release of two new
590 300
780 380
TRIP steels
590 400
780 450
HHE grades (high hole-expansion—
excellent edge-stretching behavior)
440 310
590 440
780 600

Anyone forming advanced high-

strength steels should consider ordering
a copy of this new SAE specification. In
addition to yield and tensile strengths, it
also specifies total elongation and n-val-
ues (where applicable). To order, log on
to www.sae.org, or e-mail customerser-
vice@sae.org.

32 METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2008 www.metalformingmagazine.com

 High-Strength Steels

This tunnel is stamped from Salzgit-

ter’s HCT600XD+Z alloy, a continu-
ously hot-dipped dual-phase steel.

air-hardening cold-strip steels—LH800

and LH900. While dual-phase steels
have their final mechanical properties
already in the as-delivered state, with lit-
tle change from processing, air-hard-
ening steels are delivered to the metal-
former in a soft state with excellent
formability, according to Salzgitter.
While AH steels have been around
for some time available only as long
products such as bar and wire, due to
high carbon content (1 percent or so),
the new breed of AH steels now have
low carbon content and a low carbon
equivalent, allowing manufacturers to
offer them in sheet products with good
formability and weldability. They then
attain final high-strength values during
forming and subsequent processing.
This gives stampers the ability to com-
bine good forming (deep-draw) prop-
erties with high strength in the final
component.
Material datasheets released on
LH800 and LH900 in November 2006
describe the steels as having outstand-
ing forming capabilities, and finished
components having high strength and
crash properties. Tensile strength of the
steels is at least 800 or 900 MPa (116 to
130 ksi).
Air-hardening steels fall under the
product category of post-forming heat-
treatable (PFHT) steels. Metalformers
deep-draw or otherwise form the steels,
then the parts are heattreated and hard-
ened or tempered by natural cooling.
Hydroformers—the alloys are readily
available as tubes and are very formable
—need not employ intermediate anneal-
ing when forming LH800 and LH900.
Salzgitter recommends its new PFHT steels

34 METALFORMING / FEBRUARY 2008 www.metalformingmagazine.com

 Salzgitter’s New Air-Hardening Steels
…as delivered
Type Yield strength (MPa) Tensile strength (MPa)
Hot strip
LH800 280-400
LH900 310-430
Cold strip
LH800 310-430
LH900 330-450
…and after air-hardening:
LH800 600-700
LH900 700-800
for A- and B-pillars, frame components
and cross members. Stampers can use
existing tooling, says Salzgitter, with
only minimal modifications. One caveat
to using these materials: They cannot be
delivered in galvanized form, since the
zinc coating would be compromised
during heattreating. Rather, parts must
be batch-galvanized after treatment.
In addition to its new PFHT steels,
Salzgitter recently introduced press-
hardening (PH) steel 22MnB5, a boron-
alloyed tempered steel that can achieve
tensile strengths to 1300 to 1800 MPa
(190 to 260 ksi) after hot forming with
controlled in-die quenching (press
hardening). These steels also get noto-
riety for their high yield strength, based
on manganese (1.2 to 1.4 weight per-
cent) and boron (0.0020 to 0.0035
weight percent) content. Also recom-
mended for A- and B-pillars, frame
components and cross members,
22MnB5 also would prove ideal for
penetration protection—sills, bumpers
and bumper mounts, and roof frames.
Boron-alloyed tempered steels such
as 22MnB5 can be formed in one or two
steps, depending on the complexity of
the component. As-delivered, stampers
can cold-form the sheet, offered by
Salzgitter in thicknesses from 1 to 3
mm and in widths from 900 to 1500
mm, and then harden in a separate
process. Or, as an added step, stampers
can hot-form the previously cold-
formed parts, with subsequent press
hardening in the die. This requires water
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Percent elongation
480-650 >23
500-670 >22
450-570 >28 (> 0.16 n value)
480-600 >26 (> 0.15 n value)
800-900 >15
900-1000 >13
cooling in the press, and a coating on
the steel sheet to avoid oxidation and
scaling of the sheet.
As an application example of the
ability of its new steels to be formed,
Salzgitter cites testing performed at a
Magna facility where center pillars were
deep-drawn from 1.8-mm-thick LH900
sheet. Yield strength of the steel averaged
400 MPa after forming, 700 MPa after
hardening and 750 MPa after temper-
ing. Tensile strength averaged 550 MPa
after forming, 1000 MPa after harden-
ing and 950 MPa after tempering.
Coming down the pike from Salzgit-
ter: high-strength and -ductility (HSD)
steels under development for the last
few years through a partnership with
Corus. HSD steels contain high levels of
manganese, and offer strength levels of
600-1400 MPa with elongations of 70 to
20 percent, respectively. To produce these
steels, Salzgitter is erecting a new pro-
duction line that will include electric-
arc-furnace steelmaking and strip casting
using its BeST (belt-strip casting) tech-
nology. www.salzgitter-ag.de/en
MF
Seminar: Higher-Strength Steel—
Solving the Problems
Learn all about the properties of AHSS and
the techniques used to form and fabricate them at
this PMA-sponsored seminar May 22 in Cleveland,
OH. Seminar topics include stretchability and
bendability, springback, punch and blankholder
loads, tool temperature and wear, press loads and
energy requirements, blanking damage and case
studies. For more information, please contact
Michelle Underwood: munderwood@pma.org,
216/901-8800 ext. 163.