Experimental study on the warm forming and quenching behavior for hot stamping of high-strength aluminum alloys

Within the last decades, stringent regulations on fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and product recyclability forced the automotive sector to implement new strategies within the field of car body manufacturing. Due to their low density and good corrosion resistance, aluminum became one of the most relevant lightweight materials. Recently, especially high- strength aluminum alloys for structural components gained importance. Since the low formability of these alloys limits their application, there is a need for novel process strategies in order to enhance the forming behavior. One promising approach is the hot stamping of aluminum alloys. The combination of quenching and forming in one step after solution heat treatment leads to a significant improvement of the formability. Furthermore, higher manufacturing accuracy can be achieved due to reduced spring back. Within this contribution, the influence of forming temperature on the subsequent material behavior and the heat transfer during quenching will be analyzed. Therefore, the mechanical and thermal material characteristics such as flow behavior and heat transfer coefficient during hot stamping are investigated.