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。超高强度钢是轻量化材料的良好候选。传统的冷冲压工艺由于其在室温下成形性有限和回弹明显而不适合制造超高强度钢。一种名为直接热冲压的新工艺，结合了加热、热成形和随后的淬火硬化，已经开发出来用于超高强度钢。然而，氧化（结垢）和表面脱碳发生在加热和转移材料。在此项目中，申请人与Marwood金属制造有限公司的研发专家合作，提出开发一种低成本和可靠的电镀工艺，以在超高强度钢上制备适合热冲压的抗氧化涂层。

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.