Rick Nicholson

Hot stamping of automotive structural safety components developed in response to mandates levied by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 1 to improve vehicle crash integrity while also reducing vehicle weight to help meet fuel efficiency standards. Heating a high-strength steel (HSS) component of a boron-steel alloy to the austenitic range—a super-heated solid solution state, ~ 1,700 degrees F (950 degrees C)—improved drawability, and then quickly cooling the part in a water-cooled die, or quenching, transformed the crystalline structure, increasing the formed component's strength-to-weight ratio.