Page 20 - MetalForming-Jul-2018-issue

Hot-Forming
Potential Continues
to Heat Up
Continuing material and equipment advancements keep pace with increasing demand.
BY JOE JANCSURAK, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Stampers steering away from hot forming because of equipment costs and process complexity may want to consider a change of course. With automotive, and now aerospace, agriculture and possibly other markets embracing Gen 1 and Gen 2, and soon, Gen 3 cold- and hot- formed advanced high-strength steels (AHSS), demand for hot-formed (aka press-hardened steel, or PHS) parts continues to accelerate. (For more on the distinct steel classifications, see page 56 of the April issue of Metal- Forming, or visit www.metalforming- magazine.com.)
“As advancing technologies increase production speeds and rates, while driving down production costs and scrap rates, we’ll continue to see more hot-formed parts,” predicts Mike Austin, director of manufacturing engineering at Diversified Tooling Group (DTG), Madison Heights, MI. With its four affil- iated companies—Superior Cam (tool- ing and processes for prototype sheet- metal parts and assemblies); Midland Design Services (CAD die design); Bespro Pattern (foundry tools); Amer- ican Tooling Center (production tool and die)—and 775,000 sq. ft. of engi- neering and manufacturing floor space,
Hot-forming enables extremely strong structural parts with complex shapes.
18 MetalForming/July 2018
www.metalformingmagazine.com
DTG is a full-service manufacturer of stamp- ing dies and stamped parts. Austin closely monitors market trends and says that industry experts forecast a fast- growing compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the next sev- eral years. For example, according to marketre- searchfuture.com, the CAGR for AHSS from 2017 to 2023 is project- ed at 9.8 percent.
Elongations from 25 to 50 percent can be achieved after austenization.
So what is it about
hot forming that makes
it an attractive option? With today’s steel options and presses, it delivers a host of benefits:
deformation while improving stiffness of vehicle structures.
• Springback issues seen in cold- stamped AHSS are eliminated, despite complex geometry of parts and high final-part strength.
• Hot forming results in high yield
• It allows use of high yield-strength and tensile-strength (to 2000 MPa) steels, about six times as strong as those produced a decade ago, which resist