In-use properties of super high strength steels generated by a range of metallurgical strategies (Superhigh): final report

Often products are improved from a metallurgical point of view without taking into account the industrial feasibility (insufficient TRL). In many occasions the market will demand an improved level of a well-known property within a certain steel concept. Hence it remains difficult to broaden the application areas, when certain properties are today not 'in-demand'. The market readiness level of the product is low. Furthermore, properties other than the ones currently in use, could help improve application design, e.g. in wear resistance hardness is not necessarily the best property to pursue. Concerning in-use properties no cross comparison can be made unless investigated systematically. This project used knowledge of previous work and explored the potential of new proposed metallurgical routes in a broader perspective. Results revealed several mechanical and in-use properties that complement the classical tensile strength versus elongation charts for a large variety of microstructures ranging from TRIP assisted steels over ausformed martensite and maraging steels up to heavily deformed high carbon steels. Those results provide essential information to select metallurgical routes of SHSS for the next decades. Knowledge of previous and running projects was largely used as most of them have set out the principles of the metallurgical concepts that were considered. This project generated added value by providing relevant data on mechanical and in-use properties to assess different metallurgical concepts against a variety of application requirements. An effort was made to compare different SHSS grades including their processing route to ensure successful application of new microstructures in future products.