LIGHTSOLMAN

Advanced materials for the automotive industry must exhibit very high strength, sufficient ductility, and the ability to absorb energy during an impact. These properties should be achieved through efficient, energy- and environmentally friendly production processes in line with the European Green Deal. At the same time, they must meet the ever-increasing demands for passenger safety, fuel efficiency, and the future development of electromobility. In recent years, various groups of high-strength steels, known as Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) of the second and third generation, have been developed. These steels combine high strength and ductility through the addition of up to 30% manganese. Despite the advantages of these alloys over conventional automotive steels, there are various metallurgical challenges in production due to the high content of alloying elements that need to be addressed to enable large-scale production. The challenges mainly concern high-temperature process technology, such as continuous casting and subsequent hot forming. At temperatures above 1200 C, these steels tend to crack and develop an inhomogeneous microstructure, which affects both cost- efficiency due to the need for post-processing and the applicability of the final product. Within the framework of the research project, high-resolution experimental methods will be used to characterize different alloy concepts regarding their solidification behavior and ductility at high temperatures. The focus is on investigating the targeted adjustment of manganese content with other alloying elements, such as the lightweight metal aluminum, which reduces the density of the steel. Computer-aided modeling using modern software packages is expected to allow the design of alternative alloy concepts based on experimentally verified results, optimizing the use of costly experiments. The main hypothesis of the research suggests that altering the chemical composition and selecting optimized casting and hot forming parameters should lead to industrial applications in the automotive and energy sectors.