New thermomechanical strategy for production of high strength low alloyed multiphase steel showing transformation induced plasticity effect

In the past few years a lot of research was carried out on the development of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) assisted multiphase steels. Two principal ways were proposed: (i) controlled cooling during the hot rolling process to obtain hot rolled TRIP assisted multiphase steels and (ii) the combination of intercritical annealing and isothermal holding at bainite formation temperatures during continuous annealing resulting in cold rolled TRIP assisted steel products. Unfortunately, both thermomechanical methods proposed require a high silicon level to inhibit cementite precipitation to avoid a loss of stability for the metastable retained austenite. In addition, due to high silicon levels, red scale surface defects appear and only moderate hot dip galvanisability is possible. In this paper a new thermomechanical strategy for the production of high strength low alloyed TRIP assisted multiphase steels with good hot dip galvanisability and without red scale defects will be presented.