Direct water quenching technique can be used in hot stamping process to obtain higher cooling rate compared to that of the normal die cooling method. In the direct water quenching process, setting proper water flow rate in consideration of material thickness and the size of the area directly cooled in the component is important to ensure uniform microstructure and mechanical properties. In this study, to derive proper water flow rate conditions that can achieve uniform microstructure and mechanical properties, microstructure and hardness distribution in various water flow rate conditions are measured for 3.2 mm thick boron steel sheet. Hardness distribution is uniform under the flow condition of 1.5 L/min or higher. However, due to the lower cooling rate in that area, the lower flow conditions result in a drastic decrease in hardness in some areas in the hot-stamped part, resulting in low martensite fraction. From these results, it is found that the selection of proper water flow rate is an important factor in hot stamping with direct water quenching process to ensure uniform mechanical properties.

Recently, automobile parts have been required to have high strength and toughness to allow for weight lightening or improved stability. But, traditional micro-alloyed steel cannot be applied in automobile parts. In this study, we considered the influence of quenching temperature and cooling rate for specimens fabricated by vacuum induction furnace. Directly quenched micro-alloyed steel for hot forging can be controlled according to its micro structure and the heat-treatment process. Low carbon steel, as well as alloying elements for improvement of strength and toughness, was used to obtain optimized conditions. After hot forging at 1,200˚C, the ideal mechanical properties (tensile strength ≥ 1,000 MPa, Charpy impact value ≥ 100 J/cm2) can be achieved by using optimized conditions (quenching temperature : 925 to 1,050˚C, cooling rate : ≥ 5˚C/sec). The difference of impact value according to cooling rate can be influenced by the microstructure. A fine lath martensite micro structure is formed at a cooling rate of over 5˚C/sec. On the other hand, the second phase of the M-A constituent microstructure is the cause of crack initiation under the cooling rate of 5˚C/sec.