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

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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.