Method for making structural automotive components and the like

In a method for making a vehicle having at least one contoured structural door beam, the improvement, comprising:

• providing an elongate strip of high strength steel having a thickness in the range of 0.5-5.0 millimeters;
• electroplating the steel strip with a metal comprising primarily nickel to form on at least the opposite faces of the steel strip a nickel coating having a thickness in the range of 1.0-5.0 microns;
• cutting a length of the nickel coated steel strip to form a flat, plate-shaped blank;
• heating the plate-shaped blank in a generally open atmosphere comprising primarily ambient air to a temperature in the range of 800° C. to 1000° C. within less than ten minutes, thereby diffusing at least a portion of the nickel coating a predetermined distance into the opposite faces of the steel strip portion of the plate-shaped blank to alleviate scale formation, and simultaneously raising the temperature of the plate-shaped blank for hot forming the same;
• transporting the heated plate-shaped blank into a pressing tool;
• forming the heated plate-shaped blank in the pressing tool into a predetermined contoured shape to define a selected structural door beam;
• cooling the formed structural door beam in the pressing tool to heat treat the formed structural door beam through microstructure phase change without substantial scale formation;
• removing the heat treated structural door beam from the pressing tool;
• and
• welding the heat treated structural door beam in the vehicle without cleaning the same between said removing step and said welding step.

A method for making contoured structural parts for vehicles and the like, comprising:

• providing a strip of steel having a thickness greater than 0.5 millimeters;
• coating the steel strip with a metal comprising primarily nickel to form on at least the opposite faces of the steel strip a nickel coating having a thickness in the range of 1.0-5.0 microns;
• cutting the nickel coated steel strip to form a flat, plate-shaped blank;
• heating the plate-shaped blank to a temperature in the range of 800° C. to 1000° C. within less than ten minutes, thereby diffusing at least a portion of the nickel coating a predetermined distance into the opposite faces of the steel strip portion of the plate-shaped blank, and simultaneously raising the temperature of the plate-shaped blank for hot forming the same;
• transporting the heated plate-shaped blank into a pressing tool;
• forming the heated plate-shaped blank in the pressing tool into a predetermined contoured shape to define a selected structural vehicle part;
• cooling the formed structural vehicle part in the pressing tool to heat treat the formed structural vehicle part;
• and
• removing the heat treated structural vehicle part from the pressing tool.

A method for making contoured structural parts, comprising:

• providing a blank made from steel having a thickness greater than 0.5 millimeters;
• coating the steel blank on at least the opposite faces thereof with a metal selected from the group consisting essentially of:
• a) nickel,
• b) copper, and
• c) chromium;
• heating the coated blank to a temperature in the range of 800° C. to 1000° C., thereby diffusing at least a portion of the metal coating a predetermined distance into the opposite faces of the steel strip portion of the coated blank, and simultaneously raising the temperature of the coated blank for hot forming the same;
• transporting the heated coated blank into a pressing tool;
• forming the heated coated blank in the pressing tool into a predetermined contoured shape to define a selected structural part;
• cooling the formed structural part in the pressing tool to heat treat the same;
• and
• removing the heat treated structural part from the pressing tool.