Development of an electroplating technology for anti-oxidization of ultrahigh-strength steels during hot-stamping

为了应对经济、能源和环境方面的挑战，汽车行业倾向于减轻车辆的重量，提高车辆的安全性，从而减少温室气体排放，提高燃油消耗效率。除了结构设计，重要的是努力选择轻质和高强度的材料。超高强度钢是轻质材料的一个很好的候选材料。由于超高强度钢的成形性有限，室温回弹明显，传统的冷冲压工艺不适用于超高强度钢的生产。开发了一种用于超高强度钢的新工艺，称为直接热冲压，它结合了加热、热成形和随后的淬火硬化。然而，在材料的加热和转移过程中，会发生氧化(结垢)和表面脱碳。在这个项目中，申请者与马伍德金属制造有限公司的研发专家合作，提议开发一种低成本和可靠的电镀工艺，使超高强度钢上的抗氧化层适合烫印。

To address the economic, energy and environmental challenges, automotive industry tends to reduce the weight and improve the safety of their vehicles, and thus reduce the greenhouse gas emission and increase the efficiency of fuel consumption. Other than the structural design, of importance are efforts to choose light and high-strength materials. Ultrahigh-strength steel is a good candidate of lightweight materials. The traditional cold-stamping process is not suitable for manufacturing ultrahigh-strength steels due to their limited formability and pronounced springback at room temperature. A new process, called direct hot-stamping that combines heating, hot forming and subsequent quench hardening, has been developed for ultrahigh-strength steels. However, oxidation (scaling) and surface decarburization occurs during heating and transferring of the material. In this project, the applicants, in collaboration with R&D experts of Marwood Metal Fabrication Limited, propose to develop a low-cost and reliable electroplating process to make an antioxidant coating on ultrahigh-strength steels good for hot-stamping.