DEVELOPMENT OF RAPID DIE WEAR TEST METHOD FOR ASSESSMENT OF DIE LIFE AND PERFORMANCE IN STAMPING OF ADVANCED/ULTRA HIGH STRENGTH STEEL (A/UHSS) SHEET MATERIALS

摘要

Automotive companies are actively pursuing to increase the use of high-strength-lightweight alloys such as aluminum, magnesium, and advanced/ultra high-strength steels (A/UHSS) in body panel and structural part applications to achieve fuel efficiency while satisfying several environmental and safety concerns. A/UHSS sheet materials with higher strength and crashworthiness capabilities, in comparison to mild steel alloys, are considered as a near-term (i.e., ~5 years) choice of material for body and structural components due to their relatively low cost when compared with other lightweight materials such as aluminum and magnesium. However, A/UHSS materials present an increased level of die wear and springback in stamping operations when compared to the currently used mild steel alloys due to their higher surface hardness and high yield strength levels. In order to prevent the excessive wear effect in stamping dies, various countermeasures have been proposed such as alternative coatings, modified surface enhancements in addition to the use of newer die materials including cast, cold work tool, and powder metallurgical tool steels. In this study, a new die wear test method was developed and tested to provide a cost-effective solution for evaluating various combinations of newly developed die materials, coatings and surfaces accurately and rapidly. A new slider type of test system was developed to replicate the actual stamping conditions including the contact pressure state, sliding velocity level and continuous and fresh contact pairs (blank-die surfaces). Several alternative die materials in coated or uncoated conditions were tested against different AHSS sheet blanks under varying load, sliding velocity circumstances. Prior to and after wear tests, several measurements and tribological examinations were performed to obtain a quantified performance evaluation using commonly adapted wear models. Analyses showed that (1) the rapid wear method is feasible and results in reasonable wear assessments, (2) uncoated die materials are prone to expose severe form wear (galling, scoring, etc.) problems; (3) coated samples are unlikely to experience such excessive wear problems, as expected; (4) almost all of the the recently developed die materials (DC 53, Vancron 40, Vanadis 4) performed better when compared to conventional tool steel material AISI D2, and (5) in terms of coating type, die materials coated with thermal diffusion (TD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) coatings performed relatively better compared to other tested coating types; (6) It was seen that wear resistance correlated with substrate hardness.