Relation Between the Material in Press Hardening Dies and Fully Martensitic Transformation : Sheet properties of thick 3D-sheets in small series production

Abstract: This report evaluates the influence of the die material on the cooling rate and martensitic transformation of press hardened sheets. The goal was to increase the thicknesses of sheets that can form fully martensitic microstructure when press hardened. To achieve this, a numerical- and an experimental method was used and results were compared to assess the impact of die material change. The tests were conducted with two die materials, a ductile cast iron according to standard EN‑GJS‑700‑2 and a casted steel according to standard EN 1.6220. Two sheet materials, Hardox400 and Hardox450, were press hardened and two different thicknesses were evaluated. Simulations have been designed with temperature dependent material properties based on data gathered from the literature survey. All simulations indicated an improved cooling rate over the entire temperature spectrum when changing from the iron die to the steel die.   An experimental procedure has been performed using two different dies, both planar and of approximately the same thickness. Thermocouples were used to obtain cooling curves of all sheets during quenching. Samples were taken from each sheet and the hardness, microstructure and the present phases were investigated.   The experiments concluded that the thinner sheets, when quenched, experienced an overall increase in cooling rate in the steel die compared with the iron die. A total reduction in cooling time by 37.5%-43,7% was observed over the entire temperature span. However, only the Hardox400 sheet fully formed martensite, as the cooling of the Hardox450 sheets still was not fast enough in either of the dies. For the thicker sheets, the experiments also indicated a reduction in total cooling time. The total cooling time was reduced by 23% when pressed in the steel die compared to the iron die. This improvement, however, was not observed at higher temperatures. At the critical temperature span between 800˚C and 500˚C, the sheet showed no improvements in cooling rate with the die material change. Both the hardness measurements and the microstructure evaluation of the thicker sheets indicated a pearlitic-martensitic microstructure. As both the simulations and experiments indicated similar improvements, the increase in cooling rate could be accredited to the die material change.  This concludes that the heat transfer properties of the die material affected the cooling characteristics of the process. It was also concluded that the thinner sheets experienced a reduced cooling time over the entire temperature spectrum with the die material change. The thicker sheet, however, only experienced a reduced cooling time in the lower temperature span. Thus, changing the die material did not affect the hardening of the thicker sheets. This ultimately resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to increase the possible thickness of sheets with fully martensite microstructure. The improvements observed for the thinner sheets, are however promising and could be further evaluated for another sheet material.