Shaped boron tubular structure support
AssigneeL & W Engineering
InventorsDean Richardson, Jason Bigelow
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of producing a structure support may include: providing a hollow workpiece composed of a steel material; heating the hollow workpiece to an austenitizing temperature range to provide the steel material with an austenitic microstructure; forming the hollow workpiece into a predefined complex geometry while the hollow workpiece is still in the austenitizing temperature range; and cooling the hollow workpiece with the predefined complex geometry to transform the austenitic microstructure into a martensitic microstructure.
Claims16
A method of producing a structure support, comprising:
- providing a hollow workpiece composed of a steel material;
- heating the hollow workpiece to an austenitizing temperature range to provide the steel material with an austenitic microstructure;
- forming the hollow workpiece into the structure support having a predefined complex geometry while the hollow workpiece is still in the austenitizing temperature range;
- cooling the hollow workpiece to transform the austenitic microstructure into a martensitic microstructure;
- and
- wherein forming the hollow workpiece is performed simultaneously with cooling the hollow workpiece.
A method of producing a vehicle structure support, comprising:
- providing a hollow metallic workpiece composed of a boron steel material, the hollow metallic workpiece having an initial geometry;
- heating the hollow metallic workpiece to a material transformation temperature range for a predetermined duration to austenitize the boron steel material;
- transferring the hollow metallic workpiece to a press within a specified time period;
- forming the hollow metallic workpiece into the vehicle structure support having a predefined complex geometry different from the initial geometry by deforming the hollow metallic workpiece in the press while the hollow metallic workpiece is still in the material transformation temperature range;
- cooling the hollow metallic workpiece at a cooling rate sufficient to transform the austenitized boron steel material into martensite;
- and
- wherein forming the hollow metallic workpiece is performed simultaneously with cooling the hollow metallic workpiece where the hollow metallic workpiece is deformed and quenched in the press via a press tool contacting and pressing the hollow metallic workpiece.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.