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Hot stamping or so-called continuous press hardening is a process to make sheet metal parts with yield-tensile strength up to 1150Mpa-1550Mpa. Due to the high specific ratio of quenched Boron steels, which is higher than those of aluminum alloys and magnesium alloys, the components with low mass can be made from hot stamped Boron steels. In current industrial practice, direct hot stamping process, which forms a part directly from a flat sheet blank, is normally used to make geometries with relatively mild deformation, such as B-pillars, A-pillars etc. In this study, indirect hot stamping is introduced to develop geometries with a deep cavity and complex form features. Since the indirect hot stamping develops the part cavity depth in cold drawing and then forms detail features in hot stamping, part with complex geometry can thus be formed. A rocker component is chosen to demonstrate the technology.

The demand for fuel economy and the stringent requirements on automobile safety have required automakers to emphasize strength over stiffness in designing light-weight body structures. The change in emphasis has necessitated the exploitation of ultra high-strength steels to achieve improved crashworthiness and durability in automotive vehicles. In this paper, the viability of hot-stamped boron steels in high-performance automotive structures will be discussed. A brief discussion of hot-stamping process will be followed by recent mechanical property data that underscore the superiority of boron steels in enabling the development of safe and fuel-efficient vehicles. The relatively low-carbon and low-alloy content of boron steels enable better weldability compared with high-carbon and high-alloy steels.