Hot-rolled Steel Sheet with Excellent Flash Weldability for Automotive Wheel Rim Use

Abstract

As for the steels for wheel rim, CC killed steel will be more prevalent instead of rimmed steel in accordance with the increase of CC ratio in steel production. In addition, from the point of weight reduction of cars, high strength steels are tried to put into practice. As far as wheel rim is concerned, flash weldability is very important as well as formability of steels.
In this report, flash weldability of CC killed steel, HSLA (High Strength Low Alloy) and DP (Dual Phase) steels are investigated. In flash welding of CC killed steel, control of Al content, in addition to Si and Mn contents, is found to be required in order to avoid the detect formation due to Si-Mn-Al oxide. On the other hand, coiling temperature is important in high strength steels, especially DP steels, in order to prevent softening of weld heat affected zone.