Effect of the cutting process on the fatigue behaviour of press hardened and high strength dual phase steels

Press hardened 22MnB5 steels are steady broadening their applications in vehicles since they allow to meet the increasing demands for weight reduction and safety standards. Press hardened parts have been typically applied as structural reinforcements where high rigidity and crash resistance are required. However, the need for further weight reductions in vehicles leads to potential applications in chassis areas, where parts must face up to cyclic loads. The fatigue behaviour of the press hardened 22MnB5 steel and the effect that post-forming processes (such as trimming or punching that usually follows press hardening) on the fatigue behaviour is scarcely known. Thus, the aim of this work is to analyse the fatigue behaviour of 22MnB5 press hardened steels cut using different strategies. The fatigue limit has been obtained in tensile samples of 22MnB5 with an Al–Si coating. Samples were cut by laser and shearing with two different clearance values. Results are compared to those obtained with a high drawing quality mild steel and a dual phase steel with a tensile strength of 1000 MPa, DP1000. It is shown that the fatigue behaviour of press hardened 22MnB5 steels and DP1000 is governed by the defects introduced in cut edges, while the behaviour of the mild steel is almost independent of the cut edge quality. This finding indicates that high strength steels are markedly sensitive to pre-existent defects, such as burr, cracks at the cut edge or surface cracks, and they can be considered as low damage tolerant steels. On the contrary, mild steels are highly damage tolerant, i.e. the fatigue life is mainly independent of the initial defect size. In press hardened 22MnB5, even when cut edges have a high surface quality, the fatigue limit is still limited by the presence of cracks in the brittle Al–Si coating. Crack propagation due to the low damage tolerance capacity of the press hardened steel has been successfully rationalized through a fracture mechanics approach. Thus, if coated press hardened 22MnB5 steels are to be applied in vehicle components subjected to cyclic loads, they must be designed following fracture mechanics concepts to state the safe loading conditions for adequate fatigue resistance.