US 2025/0144692 A1Published application

Method and fixture for local softening of hot stamped member

OwnerZhiyang GAO, Bin XIA +1inventors

InventorsZhiyang GAO, Bin XIA, Le ZHU

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Abstract

A method and fixture for local softening of a hot stamped member is provided. A local region to be softened of a hot stamping blank is covered by a heat-insulating layer, and the heat-insulating layer is covered by a heating layer. After the hot stamping blank is fed into a heating furnace, a local temperature difference is generated, thereby forming a soft region. Then, the hot stamping blank having soft and hard regions is fed into a thermoforming machine so as to be machined into a hot stamped member. A hot stamping blank is subjected to local temperature control during heating to form a hot stamping blank having soft and hard regions, so that a hot stamped member that is locally softened can be formed in one step without the need for tailor welding. Therefore, die costs can be reduced, and the dimensional precision of obtained parts is high.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for local softening of a hot stamped member, comprising the following steps:

laying flat a first heat-absorbing plate;
providing a first heat-insulating blanket on an upper surface of the first heat-absorbing plate;
placing a hot stamping blank on the first heat-insulating blanket, so that a region to be softened thereof faces the first heat-insulating blanket, and a region to be hardened thereof is exposed out of the first heat-insulating blanket;
placing a second heat-insulating blanket on an upper surface of the region to be softened of the hot stamping blank, the position of the second heat-insulating blanket corresponding to that of the first heat-insulating blanket;
providing a second heat-absorbing plate on an upper surface of the second heat-insulating blanket;
feeding, into a heating furnace, a whole member formed by stacking the first heat-absorbing plate, the first heat-insulating blanket, the hot stamping blank, the second heat-insulating blanket, and the second heat-absorbing plate, so as to heat the same, the heating temperature reaching to above the austenization temperature of the hot stamping blank;
maintaining the temperature for several minutes, and taking out the whole member from the heating furnace;
sequentially removing the second heat-absorbing plate, the second heat-insulating blanket, the first heat-insulating blanket, and the first heat-absorbing plate to obtain a hot stamping blank having soft and hard regions;
and
feeding the hot stamping blank having the soft and hard regions into a thermoforming machine to machine the hot stamping blank, and rapidly cooling the hot stamping blank to form a hot stamped member.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.