Effects of Microstructures on Formability in Hot Rolled High Strength Steel Sheets

The Effects of microstructures on stretch flangeability and stretchability in hot rolled high strength steel was investigated. Stretch flangeability of multi-phase steels was inferior to that of single phase steels at a given tensile strength, although stretchability of the former was superior to that of the latter. In multi-phase steel, the main factor affecting stretch flangeability is the hardness ratio of ferrite to hard phase, on the other hand, that which most affects stretchability is the volume fraction of ferrite. According to these results, several types of high strength hot rolled steel sheets with excellent formability were developed.