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Weight reduction of automobiles is one of the most highlighted subjects in automobile industry from the energy saving and clean environment points of view. A typical approach for the purpose is to use high strength steel sheets as well as optimizing designs and using low density materials. It is not, however, easy to apply high strength steel sheets to automotive panels because of their strict requirement for the shape-fixability although a high dent resistance is also required. Besides the use of bake hardening steels, two different high strength steel sheets, which are a continuously annealed extra-low carbon titanium-added IF steel and a low carbon TRIP steel which contains about six volume% of austenite, were assessed for the application to automotive panels in combination with a tension-controled press-forming technique and showed as good shape-fixability as a conventional box-annealed aluminum-killed DDQ steel sheet when high blank-holding-forces were applied.

The purpose of this study is twofold: to clarify the factors governing the torsional strength of surface induction hardened parts and, to present a method for strengthening automotive shaft parts for their weight reduction. The torsional strength against Mode III fracture can be expresssed by a new indicator, “equivalent hardness” defined as an average hardness weighted with the radius squared. If the equivalent hardness is continuously increased, the fracture mode change from Mode III to Mode I. The torsional strength against Mode I fracture is governed by grain boundary strength. Accordingly, the key-points in increasing the torsional strength of surface induction hardened parts are to raise the equivalent hardness and increase the grain boundary strength of the steel. By application of this method, the torsional strength of steel can be raised by 50%, which, in turn, enables about a 25% weight reduction for shaft parts.

The application of tailored blanks to autobody parts has progressed because of its numerous advantages. The forming of tailored blanks has, however, a lot of technical problems. Among the problems, weld-line movement and formability deterioration are the most significant ones in case of deep drawing. The weld-line movement and formability change were examined experimentally as a function of weld-line location in square cup deep drawing. The weld-line movement of tailored blank consists of two sources. One is the geometrical reason, and the other is due to the hardening of weld bead. The formability of tailored blank is inferior to that of an original blank by the existence of hardened weld region. The mode of fracture changes from wall breakage to a fracture adjacent to punch radius when the weld-line was close to the punch corner.

The main operations for the manufacturing of auto parts are the cutting of the flange and the stamping. In order to perform accurate fatigue calculation it is necessary to have the material properties for each point of the structure. Usually, only the fatigue curve obtained on the flat sheet with polished edges is used because it represents the basic metal behaviour. The real edge quality decreases the fatigue limit while the hardening induced by the stamping increases it. To take these effects into account allows a better fatigue calculation of the structural part.

In continuous annealing, accelerated cooling methods have recently found practical application in addition to conventional gas jet cooling or water jet quenching method. Moderate cooling rate of gas jet cooling or accelerated cooling makes it possible to utilize new high-strength steels with excellent properties. The faster cooling rate deteriorates ductility of steels. These newly developed steels are improved rephosphorized steels with high r̄-value and high bake hardenability, dual phase steels with superior ductility, Ti-stabilized high-strength steels with very high r̄-value, grain boundary hardening steels employing low temperature annealing, and unique ultra high-strength steels. This paper describes properties and process factors of these steels, and their applications to automotive.

Carburizing heat treatment is one of the automobile component manufacturing steps, which consumes a large amount of energy. Raising the carburizing temperature can shorten the carburizing time and save the energy, but involves the risks of grain coarsening and attendant property deterioration. The authors have clarified the precipitation behavior of aluminum nitride (A1N) in the automobile gear manufacturing process and the optimum precipitation of A1N in as-rolled steel bars to prevent the grain coarsening. Through the application of the controlled rolling technique to ensure the optimum precipitation of A1N in continuously cast steel of uniform chemical composition, the authors have substantially saved energy while maintaining high quality, and developed a high-temperature carburizing steel expected to minimize and stabilize quenching strains.

In order to examine the compatibility of improvement of crashworthiness with weight-saving of automobiles by using high strength steel, a combination analysis of Finite Element Method and Dynamic Mechanical Properties has been established. The material properties used in this analysis have been measured by “one bar method” high velocity tensile tests, which can examine the deformation behaviour of materials at an actual crash speed range (∼55km/h). As for the accuracy of this system, comparison between experiments and FEM simulation both of this test machine and other high-velocity-tensile-test machines have clarified the feature of one bar method and the metallurgical features of high velocity deformation. It was confirmed that the stress-strain curve measured by the one bar method agreed with that measured by the modified Split Hopkinson pressure bar method.