Experimental and modelling techniques for hot stamping applications

Hot stamping techniques have been developed for the production of complex-shaped components since the 1970s, increasingly used for the automotive industry. The application of these techniques includes hot stamping of boron steel for critical automobile safety components, and solution heat treatment, forming and cold die quenching (HFQ ® ) for forming complex-shaped high strength aluminium panels of automobile bodies and chassis structures. The developed forming techniques need dedicated experimental testing methods to be improved for characterising the thermomechanical behaviour of materials at the hot stamping conditions, and advanced materials modelling techniques to be developed for hot stamping applications. In this paper, requirements for thermomechanical tests and difficulties for hot stamping applications are introduced and analysed. The viscoplastic modelling techniques have been developed for hot stamping applications. Improved experimental methods have been proposed and used in order to obtain accurate thermomechanical uniaxial tensile test data and determine forming limits of metallic materials under hot stamping conditions.