Development of efcient production routes based on strip casting for

advanced high strength steels for crash-relevant parts

M. Daamen*, O. Gu venc, M. Bambach, G. Hirt (2)
Institute of Metal Forming (IBF), RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany
1. Introduction
The development of ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) offers
great potential for structural lightweight engineering using steel
materials [1,2]. Based on the ultra-high strength and high stiffness,
the use of 13001500 MPa UHSS enables the reduction of applied
sheet thicknesses [3] and thus a weight saving of 3040% [4].
However, the advantageous high strength of these new steels
implicates difculties in their processing. Such increased strength
is often linked with a drastically reduced formability and makes
especially cold forming difcult [5,6].
A promising improvement is represented by transformation
induced plasticity (TWIP) steels, which combine high strength
with high formability due to their extraordinary strain hardening
behaviour [4]. Due to the low yield stress, the force requirements
for cold forming are reduced and the ultimate strength is achieved
only after substantial deformation. These characteristics are
benecial for sheet metal forming. In addition, the high strength
combined with high total elongation promises a good energy
absorption in crash situations [3].
The production of TWIP steel holds new difculties in
continuous casting, which are caused by their high manganese
content of up to 30 wt% and high aluminium content of up to
3 wt%. In addition, the high strength causes problems on
conventional hot rolling lines [7,8]. These facts make the
production of high manganese TWIP steel difcult and expensive
so that their industrial use is currently limited.
Vertical twin-roll strip casting could be an alternative process
for producing high manganese steels. Characterised by a short
process chain and near-net-shape strip geometry, strip casting
could help reduce the production costs of high manganese TWIP
steel and increase their economic efciency. However, difculties
that need to be solved do occur in the selection of casting
parameters and refractory material, which have a great effect on
the process stability and product quality.
The goal of this work was to investigate if and how high
manganese steels can be produced by twin-roll strip casting and to
evaluate their behaviour during further processing as well as their
mechanical properties and their crash behaviour. Accordingly, the
following steps have been performed:
- Adaption and further development of the strip casting process
regarding the selection of refractory material and of process
parameters for producing high manganese hot strip up to 30 wt%
manganese.
- Further processing by cold rolling with and without subsequent
heat treatment to adjust the as-cast microstructure and the
resulting mechanical properties.
- Comprehensive material characterisation by means of metallo-
graphic analysis, uniaxial tensile tests and application-oriented
crash tests.
2. State of the art
Besides dislocation glide as dominant deformation mode, TWIP
steels are characterised by continuous twin formation during
straining. This results in the typical high strain hardening which
enables the extraordinary mechanical properties, consisting of a
low yield stress and a high ultimate tensile strength at engineering
strains of more than 60%. This offers the unique opportunity to
precisely adjust the mechanical properties. De Cooman et al. [4]
describe the strain hardening mechanism as dynamic HallPetch
effect. The continuously formed mechanical twins reduce
CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology xxx (2014) xxxxxx
A R T I C L E I N F O
Keywords:
Ultra high strength steel
Casting
Rolling
High manganese TWIP steel
A B S T R A C T
Twin roll strip casting can be an effective alternative to produce high manganese TWIP steel, which
provides extraordinary mechanical properties. In the work presented, 1.53 mmthin hot strips with up to
30 wt% manganese were produced directly fromthe melt and further processed to cold strip. An adapted
thermo-mechanical treatment, consisting of cold rolling with or without subsequent annealing, enables
to adjust different material states, such as recrystallised or strengthened state, and thus to tailor the
mechanical properties. As an example for the superior crash behaviour of high manganese TWIP steels,
dynamic crash tests were carried out using cold rolled Fe29Mn0.3C steel in different material states.
2014 CIRP.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 241 80 93547; fax: +49 241 80 92540.
E-mail addresses: daamen@ibf.rwth-aachen.de (M. Daamen),
hirt@ibf.rwth-aachen.de (G. Hirt).
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Please cite this article in press as: Daamen M, et al. Development of efcient production routes based on strip casting for advanced high
strength steels for crash-relevant parts. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2014.03.025
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progressively the mean free path of dislocation movement and
increase the ow stress. Twin formation is controlled by the
stacking fault energy (SFE) which mainly depends on chemical
composition and temperature.
However, the production of these high manganese steels is very
expensive due to difculties in casting and subsequent hot rolling.
High contents of alloying elements force the formation of
aggressive slags, which attack the refractory material, and the
occurrence of macro and micro segregations is signicantly
increased. Investigations showed that manganese in high con-
centrations has a high tendency to segregate, resulting in an
inhomogeneous local element distribution and inhomogeneous
material properties [7]. Furthermore, aluminium forms very stable
oxides, which change the properties of used casting powders and
lead to a poor quality inside and on the surface of cast slabs [9].
Further forming of the slabs is complicated by formation of hot
cracks and the high temperature resistance of high manganese
steels, resulting in an increased effort in hot rolling, and the
stronger formation of scale on the surface [8,9]. As well as for other
UHSS the cold rolling effort is increased due to the high strength.
An opportunity for avoiding these problems and casting new
steel grades with high manganese and aluminium contents
represent the direct strip casting (DSC) processes. They are currently
used for the industrial production of stainless steels [10] and low
carbon steels [11]. Hot strip is produced in a coupled casting and hot
rolling process close to its nal dimensions. Thus, the process chain
can be considerably shortened, which has a signicant effect on the
production costs [10]. In the twin roll casting (TRC) process, process
steps can be minimised, which causes a reduction of the required
energy of up to 85% and of the green house gas emission of up to 80%
[10,11]. Especially for the production of high manganese steels strip
casting could offer several advantages. The high tendency to
segregate can be lowered by the high cooling rates, resulting in a
ne as-cast structure with small and nely distributed non-metallic
inclusions [12]. Furthermore, the expensive use of casting powders
is not necessary [12]. Due to the low strip thicknesses, the hot rolling
effort can be considerably reduced and the scale formation on the
strip surface can be minimised.
However, strip casting of high manganese steels also leads to
serious problems. Due to the high reactivity of the melt in contact
with the refractory material inside the furnace and the casting
system, strong slag formation occurs and leads to clogging of the
lters in the casting system [8]. Further difculties appear in
contact with the ceramic side dam plates. The purposes of the side
dam plates are the thermal isolation and the sealing of the melt
pool to the sides, which is very important for process stability and
product quality. In previous work it was shown that the material
used by default (SiO
2
) is attacked by the melt which results in an
improper sealing of the melt pool, bad strip edges causing problems
in hot rolling and increased impurities in the cast strip [8].
The produced hot strip is characterised by a dendritic as-cast
structure with an inhomogeneous grain distribution and pro-
nounced micro segregations [13]. Stack compression tests of a Fe
22Mn0.6C hot strip revealed a good ow behaviour with a strain
hardening of up to 1500 MPa, similar to material of an industry-
oriented hot forming route [8].
In this paper, the strip cast steel is further processed by cold
rolling and subsequent annealing to dissolve the as-cast structure
and obtain a recrystallised microstructure with homogeneous
grain distribution. Tensile tests show the extraordinary combina-
tion of ultimate tensile strength and engineering strain. In a second
approach, the strip cast material is work-hardened by cold rolling
with a height reduction of 25% to adjust the optimal combination
of properties for dynamic crash tests.
3. Material
For developing the further processing to cold strip and
comparing the strip casting process with an industry-oriented
production in an adapted hot forming route, consisting of ingot
casting, forging, annealing and hot rolling [14], a Fe29Mn0.3C
TWIP steel with an SFE of 27 mJ/m
2
was selected. This composition
was chosen for investigating the strip casting process and the
occurring problems at very high manganese contents. The
measured chemical composition of the produced hot strip is given
in Table 1.
4. Experimental work
4.1. Strip casting
For the experiments in this work the laboratory-scale vertical
twin-roll strip casting system of the Institute of Metal Forming
(IBF) was used, which possesses all parts of an industrial strip
casting facility. It is possible to cover the entire process from the
melt to the hot rolled strip; cf. Fig. 1. The strip casting process was
adapted for the production of high manganese steels with element
contents of up to 30 wt% Mn and 3 wt% Al, regarding melting
strategy, refractory material and selection of process parameters. It
has turned out, that the use of argon as inert gas in furnace and
casting system is advantageous, regarding the formation of slag
and also the cleanliness of the cast steel is improved. As material
for the side dam plates a pressed and sintered powder mixture of
boron nitride (BN) and silicon oxide (SiO
2
) showed a high
resistance in contact with the high manganese melt.
Casting experiments showed that a high roll separating force
improves the cast strip and reduces the centre porosity in the cast
strip. Thus, it is possible to process the entire 180 kg melt to hot
rolled and coiled strip in a stable process, see Fig. 2(a). In less than
0.4 s the melt solidies between the two counter rotating casting
rolls with cooling rates up to 1000 K/s. The solidied strip leaves
the roll gap with a surface temperature of approx. 1300 8C and is
inline hot rolled at approx. 1100 8C to close centre pores and
smooth the strip surface. For the casting trials in the present work
strip thicknesses of 1.7 and 2.4 mm and a roll separating force of
Table 1
Chemical composition of the investigated steel measured by OES on the cast and hot
rolled strip in wt%.
Composition Fe C Mn Al
Fe29Mn0.3C Bal. 0.293 28.65 0.001
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the twin-roll strip casting process at the IBF [13].
Fig. 2. As-cast and coiled strip Fe29Mn0.3C (a) and schematic representation of
the tested crash boxes (b).
M. Daamen et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology xxx (2014) xxxxxx 2
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Please cite this article in press as: Daamen M, et al. Development of efcient production routes based on strip casting for advanced high
strength steels for crash-relevant parts. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2014.03.025
20 kN were used. The resulting casting velocity of the 150 mm
wide strip was approximately 0.5 m/s.
The strip was inline hot rolled at a force of 600 kN to obtain a
20% height reduction and hot strip thicknesses of 1.4 or 2.0 mm.
Nearly all pores were closed and the surface roughness improved
from R
a
= 7.1 mm to R
a
= 3.2 mm. Strip surface and edges are
characterised by a high quality and show no signs of cracks or other
defects and only low formation of scale can be detected after the
short process time.
4.2. Further processing
Hot strips of the strip casting process with a thickness of 2 mm
were cold rolled to 1.0 mm thickness and annealed at 900 8C in an
argon atmosphere to obtain a recrystallised microstructure. A
height reduction of 50% was possible, the measured thickness was
0.951.05 mm and no signs of scaling or surface cracks could be
detected after annealing. The microstructure was then analysed by
means of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD).
The excellent work hardening rate of the selected alloy allows
for tailoring the material properties. Cold rolling of the 1.4 mm
strip with a height reduction of 25% strengthens the material and
improves the crashworthiness.
Quasi-static tensile tests with e 0:0025 s
1
and dynamic
crash tests have been carried out to evaluate the mechanical
properties. For the crash tests, hexagonal crash boxes were
manufactured by bending and laser-welding of the recrystallised
strips and of the cold rolled strips. The dimensions of the used
crash boxes are shown in Fig. 2(b). Also after bending, the surface
showed a good quality and no failures occurred. The crash boxes
were tested with a test weight of 250 kg at a fall height of 2 m and
an impact energy of 5 kJ.
5. Evaluation and discussion
5.1. Microstructural properties
Metallographic analysis of the strip cast material shows the
typical, ne-dendritic solidication structure with two dendritic
strip shells and an equiaxed zone in the centre, as shown in Fig.
3(a). The dendritic structure results in pronounced micro
segregations as described in [13]. Deviations in the local chemical
composition of 28.71 3.95 wt% Mn and 0.285 0.125 wt% C at a
wavelength of 57.5 mm were measured. The EBSD picture in Fig. 3(a)
shows the inhomogeneous grain structure with large, elongated
grains of up to 500 mm length. Grains grow according to the
directional heat ux during the rapid solidication. A line of small
grains forms in the equiaxed centre zone of the strip.
In contrast, the hot rolled specimens of an industry-oriented hot
forming route, show a recrystallised microstructure with homo-
geneous element distribution and a grain size of approximately
30 mm, as shown in Fig. 3(c).
After cold rolling and recrystallisation annealing the materials
from both processes show a fully recrystallised microstructure
with a grain size of 810 mm, see Fig. 3(b) and (d). Annealing twins
can be observed in the EBSD pictures of both specimens.
Furthermore, micro segregations in the strip cast material were
reduced, but local differences in element distribution still exist.
Cold rolling without subsequent annealing leads to a strongly
strengthened microstructure. The non-recrystallised material still
exhibits large, elongated grains which are compressed due to the
height reduction of 25%. No effect on the pronounced micro
segregations can be detected.
5.2. Mechanical properties
The material characterisation of strip cast and recrystallised Fe
29Mn0.3C strip shows good mechanical properties in uniaxial
tensile tests, as seen in Fig. 4. The investigated steel has a low yield
stress of R
p0.2
= 260 MPa and achieves an ultimate tensile strength
of R
m
= 750 MPa at an engineering strain of 65%. Compared to
material of the industry-oriented hot forming route, starting with
ingot casting, similar mechanical properties are obtained at a grain
size of 810 mm.
Cold rolling strongly increases the yield stress to
R
p0.2
= 820 MPa and an ultimate tensile strength of R
m
= 900 MPa
can be achieved. However, the maximum elongation is reduced to
15%.
Both materials were analysed in application-oriented crash
tests. Fig. 5 shows the crash boxes before and after testing.
Regarding the crashed specimens, it can be seen that both
materials absorb the total impact energy of 5 kJ at considerably
different crash distances. Whereas the average distance for
absorbing the total impact energy is 164 mm for the fully
recrystallised material, this distance can be reduced to 124 mm
for the 25% cold rolled strip. This is also illustrated in Fig. 6, where
the measured force is plotted versus the covered distance, which is
the main evaluation criterion in dynamic crash tests. Reducing the
crash distance slightly increases the average force level from 32 kN
for the recrystallised material to 37.5 kN for the cold rolled steel.
This improved crashworthiness is due to the increased strength of
the material, as seen in Fig. 4. The strain hardening was specically
selected to ensure that the remaining formability is sufcient for
the deformation during the crash tests without massive material
failure. The highest deformation occurred in the folds and small
cracks were formed in this area. Furthermore, the crash behaviour
of an industrial produced DP 800, which is used in automotive
Fig. 3. Microstructure of the (a) hot rolled and (b) cold rolled strip (50% height
reduction, 15 min annealing at 900 8C) produced by strip casting and compared
with (c) hot and (d) cold rolled strip of an adapted hot forming route [8].
E
n
g
i
n
e
e
r
i
n
g

s
t
r
e
s
s

i
n

M
p
a
0
200
400
600
800
1000
0
25 % cold rolled strip
20
Engineering strain in %
Recrystallised stripex strip casting
Recrystallised stripex ingot casting
25 % cold rolled strip ex strip casting
40
fully recrystallised strip
60
GS:10 m
8 m GS:
80
Fig. 4. Tensile test results of cold rolled and annealed strip compared with material
of the adapted hot forming route and of the work-hardened material after 25% cold
rolling (Fe29Mn0.3C), GS = grain size.
M. Daamen et al. / CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology xxx (2014) xxxxxx 3
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Please cite this article in press as: Daamen M, et al. Development of efcient production routes based on strip casting for advanced high
strength steels for crash-relevant parts. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2014.03.025
applications, is compared in Fig. 6. The result shows a considerable
higher crashworthiness of the strip cast and only cold rolled Fe
29Mn0.3C.
6. Conclusion
High manganese TWIP steels have extraordinary mechanical
properties and the potential to be an important class of materials in
future. Up to date, various difculties like the high tendency to
segregate and the high strength makes the production of these
steels difcult and expensive. An alternative for an economic
production is the strip casting process. The short process route and
the near-net-shape production enable the reduction of required
energy and green house gas emission of up to 85% or 80% compared
to continuous slab casting. Further advantages are the rapid
cooling, which can reduce the segregations, the missing need of
casting powders and the low strip thickness. At the same time, the
low strip thickness is a main disadvantage of the twin-roll casting
process, because only small height reductions in rolling are
possible to dissolve the defect containing as-cast structure.
The work performed has shown that high manganese steels can
be produced in high quality by means of twin-roll strip casting. In
addition, a 50% height reduction in cold rolling and subsequent
annealing is sufcient for adjusting a recrystallised microstructure.
Despite the not completely dissolved micro segregations, superior
material properties have been shown in tensile tests and no
negative effect of the as-cast microstructure could be determined
on the mechanical properties in the recrystallised cold strip.
Due to the high work hardening rate, the material properties
can be tailored by further processing. It was shown that a 25%
height reduction in cold rolling leads to a strengthened material
state, which shows an excellent crashworthiness in application-
oriented crash tests. Even compared to an industrial produced dual
phase steel DP800, an improved crash behaviour was demonstrat-
ed.
It was shown that strip casting is an attractive alternative for
the production of high manganese steels in a very short process
chain and the produced material exhibits excellent properties. No
nal heat treatment is required and cold working can be used to
adjust material properties with increased strength and appropriate
ductility. If a higher formability is desired, a subsequent annealing
leads to a maximum elongation of 65% in the fully recrystallised
strip. This suggests that a local heat treatment could be used to
locally tailor the material properties.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Collaborative
Research Centre (SFB) 761 Stahl ab initio and ThyssenKrupp
Steel Europe AG.
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Fig. 5. Crash boxes of recrystallised strip and of 25% cold rolled strip Fe29Mn0.3C
before and after dynamic crash test.
Fig. 6. Measured forces vs crash distance for recrystallised and 25% cold rolled Fe
29Mn0.3C compared with a DP 800 steel.
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Please cite this article in press as: Daamen M, et al. Development of efcient production routes based on strip casting for advanced high
strength steels for crash-relevant parts. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cirp.2014.03.025