Experimental investigations on wear resistance characteristics of alternative die materials for stamping of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS)

Newer sheet alloys (such as Al, Mg, and advanced high strength steels) are considered for automotive body panels and structural parts to achieve lightweight construction. However, in addition to issues with their limited formability and high springback, tribological conditions due to increased surface hardness and higher work hardening effect necessitate the use of improved alternative die materials, coatings, lubricants to minimize the wear-related issues in stamping of such lightweight materials. This study aims to investigate and compare the wear performances of seven (7) different die materials (AISI D2, Vanadis 4, Vancron 40, K340 ISODUR, Caldie, Carmo, 0050A) using a newly developed wear testing method and device. We used DP600 sheets in the tests. Our results showed that almost all of the recently developed specially-alloyed die materials demonstrated higher wear resistance performance when compared with the performance of AISI D2 die material.