BAKE HARDENABLE VANADIUM CONTAINING STEEL

摘要

Rolled articles such as hot rolled or cold rolled and annealed sheet and/or strip include effective amounts of vanadium in low carbon steels to produce an improved bake hardenable product especially adapted for automotive use. The use of vanadium in the alloy steel chemistry controls bake hardenability, permits solution annealing at lower temperatures in its manufacturing sequence and specifies a composition range which is more easily cast within desired limits and causes less variation in final mechanical properties. The steel has a composition consisting in weight percent of between 0.0005 and 0.1 % carbon, between zero and less than 0.04 % nitrogen, between zero and less than 0.5 % of a nitride forming element, between zero and 0.5 % aluminium, between zero and up to 2.5 % manganese, between 0.005 and 0.6 % vanadium with the balance iron and inevitable impurities.