Method of hot stamping and hardening a metal sheet
AssigneeGestamp Hardtech AB
InventorHans Bodin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In the press hardening process when a blank is formed and cooled in cooled tools (30,31), the tools are used as a fixture during the hardening. The tools have alternately contact surfaces (33,34) and clearances (35) in a certain area against the formed product (20-24) and the contact surfaces have an area that is less than 20% of the area. As a result, this area will be a soft zone (11) of the final product and the zone will have good dimensional accuracy.
Claims19
A method of hot stamping a flat sheet metal blank to a product (20-24) in a cooled pair of tools (30, 31) and hardening of the formed product in the pair of tools using them as fixture,
- wherein both tools of the pair of tools have an area with a clearance (35) to the formed product so that a soft zone (11) is formed in the product,
- characterised in that
- in order to get a product (20-24) that has a good tolerance also in the soft zone (11), the tools have, in said area, discrete smaller contact surfaces (33, 34) to the product, said contact surfaces comprising less than 25% of the area of the soft zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.