Characteristics of advanced high-strength steels obtained by the compact strip production route

Advanced high-strength steels are used in structural components of automobiles to reduce their weight, fuel consumption and green-house gas emissions. Their properties result from tailoring their chemical composition and processing conditions to obtain microstructures consisting of a variety of hard and soft components. This work presents the analyses conducted on steels produced by continuous casting into thin moulds and hot rolling directly to the final shape. The microstructure was studied by microscopical techniques; the phase transformations occurring were assessed with the aid of commercial and dedicated computer programs. The stress-strain curves were fitted to different constitutive equations. It was found that the mechanical characteristics differed due to the strategies in design and production followed by the steelmaker.