JFE TECHNICAL REPORT

No. 4 (Nov. 2004)

High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts

—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets
Suitable for One-Piece Forming—†
FUJITA Takeshi*1 NAKAMURA Nobuyuki*2 IIZUKA Shunji*3

Abstract: cesses such as forming, welding, and hardening, pro-

JFE Steel has developed two types of formable high- cessing costs account for a large percentage of the total
carbon steel sheets for automotive power train parts part cost in comparison with material costs. Automak-
which are suitable for one-piece forming. The non- ers are therefore actively introducing methods which
oriented high-carbon cold-rolled steel sheet has reduce production costs by (1) one-piece forming, which
extremely low planar anisotropy of the r-value ((∆r reduces the number of individual parts and saves join-
 0.06), resulting in high formability, and excellent ing costs, and (2) omission of shape reforming/trimming
hardenability in low-temperature, short-time heat treat- and intermediate annealing in the forming process.
ment. This new sheet displays high dimensional accu- As a solution to these problems, this paper describes
racy in press forming of cylindrical rotating parts. two types of formable high-carbon steel sheets which
Hyper-burring high-carbon hot-rolled steel sheet enable one-piece forming of automotive power train
(Hyper-Burring SC) has excellent burring properties parts.
(hole expansion, punching) due to fine dispersion of
spheroidized cementites, which was made possible by 2. Non-Oriented High-Carbon Cold-Rolled
applying a rapid cooling system (Super-OLAC H) in the
Steel Sheet1-3)
run-out table of the hot-rolling process, and is an opti-
mum product for thickness-addition forming. High-carbon cold-rolled steel sheets are widely used
in automotive power train parts which require excel-
lent formability and thickness accuracy. However, when
1. Introduction
forming cylindrical, axially-symmetric parts, anisotropy
The key issues for technical development in the field in a designated plane in the rolled steel sheet causes
of automotive power train parts for simultaneously satis- the following problems, which made subsequent shape
fying the requirements of low fuel consumption and cost reforming or machining processes unavoidable:
competition in the global market include: (1) improved (1) Earring, which reduces yield
power train efficiency (reduced rotational resistance), (2) Reduced circularity, which causes eccentricity dur-
(2) weight reduction without sacrificing high durability, ing rotation
and (3) improved dimensional accuracy and reduction (3) Thickness deviations, which cause non-uniform
of excess material in parts. Power train parts must pos- hardening
sess both high accuracy and high strength, and because To solve these problems by reducing planar anisot-
the production process consists of many individual pro- ropy, the authors developed a new high-carbon cold-

† *2
Originally published in JFE GIHO No. 4 (May 2004), p. 39–43 Dr. Eng.,
Senior Researcher Deputy Manager,
Sheet Products Res. Dept.,
Steel Res. Lab.,
JFE Steel

*1 *3
Senior Researcher Manager, Staff Manager,
Sheet Products Res. Dept., Sheet & Strip Sec., Products Design & Quality Control
Steel Res. Lab., for Sheet & Strip Dept.,
JFE Steel West Japan Works,
JFE Steel

44
 High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets Suitable for One-Piece Forming—

rolled steel sheet which possesses both the essential 5.0

property of press formability and high induction- 4.0 (222)

hardenability. Steel A
3.0

Pole intensities (X random)

2.1 Development Concept
2.0
Planar anisotropy in steel sheets is defined by the Steel B
1.0
r-value ( {ln(w0 /w)} / {ln(t0 /t)}, where w is width (110)
and t is thickness). The degree of earring during cup- 0.6

forming of a steel sheet decreases as the planar anisot- 0.4

ropy of the r-value (∆r  (r 0°  r 90°  2r 45° )/2)
0.2
approaches 0. Planar anisotropy is strongly corre-
lated with the recrystallization texture.4) In containers, 0.0
As 500 550 600 650 700
improved planar anisotropy is achieved by increasing cold-
rolled
cold reduction to as much as 90% as a method of con- Final annealing temperature (°C)
trolling the recrystallization texture.5) However, in trans- Fig. 1 Changes of normalized relative values of inte-
mission part applications, the increase in cold reduction grated X-ray intensities ((hkl )) during 2nd anneal-
is not desirable because it is essential to secure a certain ing
sheet thickness.
Due to the relationship between the rolling direction eter, planar anisotropy was extremely small, at ∆r 
of respective crystal orientations and the r-value,6) the 0.03. In contrast, steel B showed large planar anisotropy,
sheets in which the {111} orientation is developed in the at ∆r  0.12, demonstrating that the cementite diame-
sheet plane show high r-values in all directions in the ter as a large influence on the planar anisotropy of the
sheet plane. In contrast, with the {100}<011> orienta- r-value. It should also be noted that no difference in tex-
tion, the r-value is high in the 45° direction, and with the ture attributable to hot-band annealing was observed.
{110}<001> orientation (Goss orientation), r  0.5 in Based on this fact, it was considered that submicron-size
the 0° direction and the r-value becomes infinitely large cementite has some type of effect on the formation of
in the 90° direction, seriously reducing planar anisot- <111>//ND grains, and the recrystallization texture was
ropy. therefore investigated from this viewpoint.
The authors therefore conjectured that the planar From the integrated X-ray intensities during the sec-
anisotropy of the r-value in high-carbon steel sheets ond annealing as shown in Fig. 1 and the ODF (ori-
could be effectively improved by randomizing the devel- entation distribution function) analysis results after
opment of the <111>//ND (normal direction), which is the second annealing, steel A, in which cementite is
the priority orientation, and controlling the morphology finely dispersed, maintains the {111} orientation at a
of cementite, which has an important effect on recrystal- high level, and simultaneously the development of the
lization and grain growth, in order to suppress the devel- {110}<001> Goss orientation, which impairs planar
opment of the {110}<001> Goss orientation (r-value in anisotropy, is significantly reduced. This is attributed to
90° direction relative to rolling direction: infinite) as an the fact that fine cementite promotes randomization of
impediment to the planar anisotropy of the r-value. {111} grains by suppressing preferential consumption
of {111}<112> grains by Goss grains, and thus greatly
2.2 Texture Control reduces the anisotropy of <111>//ND fiber.

2.2.1 Improvement of planar anisotropy 2.2.2 Role of cementite in recrystallization and

texture formation
To investigate the effect of the cementite diameter
on recrystallization and texture, the cementite diameter The morphology and amount of precipitation of
was varied by performing annealing for 40 h at 640°C cementite, which is the second phase, affect recrystalli-
(steel A) and 720°C (steel B), which are below the Ac1 zation and texture formation in high-carbon cold-rolled
transformation point, prior to cold rolling. The mate- steel sheets. Because cementite is extremely hard (HV 
rial used was commercially-manufactured JIS S35C hot 950) in comparison with the ferrite matrix, cold rolling
band. Cementite was 100% spheroidized in both cases, generates high strain in ferrite in the vicinity of cement-
and had diameters of steel A: 0.4 µm and steel B: 1.0 ite boundaries. The existence of this region has an
µm, respectively. The samples were then cold-rolled at important effect on recrystallization behavior. Further-
a reduction of 70%, and the resulting sheets were sub- more, cementite diameter and dispersion characteristics
jected to recrystallization annealing for 40 h at 680°C. also have a considerable effect on ferrite grain growth.
In steel A, which had a submicron-size cementite diam- Photo 1 shows the microstructural change after cold

45
 High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets Suitable for One-Piece Forming—

Steel A Steel B
corresponds to this phenomenon.

As cold-rolled
2.3 Properties of Non-Oriented High-Carbon
Cold-Rolled Steel Sheet
2.3.1 Microstructure and mechanical properties
530°C

of developed steel
The typical microstructure and mechanical prop-
erties of the newly developed JIS S35C equivalent steel
Final annealing temperature

are shown in Photo 2 and Table 1, respectively. The

590°C

developed steel has a microstructure consisting of homo-

geneously equiaxed ferrite grains and finely dispersed
cementite, and possesses excellent formability, display-
ing an elongation (El) value of 39%. The tensile strength
650°C

(TS) is 470 MPa, and its Vickers hardness (HV) is 140.

The planar anisotropy of the r-value (∆r) is extremely
small, at 0.06.
680°C

2.3.2 Formability and dimensional accuracy

ND of developed steel
5 µm
RD The appearance of the developed and the conven-
Photo 1 Effect of annealing temperature prior to cold- tional steels after cylindrical deep drawing is shown in
rolled on microstructural change during final Photo 3. The blank size was 100 mm in diameter, and
annealing the drawing ratio was 2.0. Figure 2 shows the change
in wall height and wall thickness in the circumferen-
rolling and during the second annealing.7,8) The effect tial direction. The developed steel, which has extremely
of the annealing temperature prior to cold rolling on small planar anisotropy, showed little deviation in wall
microstructural change during the final annealing can be height, at a maximum value of approximately 0.5 mm,
understood from these photos. Specifically, in steel B, even in deep drawing at a drawing ratio of 2.0, which
which has large planar anisotropy, a fine recrystalliza- allows users to substantially rationalize the machining/
tion structure can be observed at 530°C, and recrystal- trimming process. Furthermore, with the developed
lization is completed at 590°C. This indicates that steel steel, the deviation in wall thickness was less than 1%
sheets containing coarse cementite display the same (10–20 µm), even at the 30 mm drawing height posi-
mode of recrystallization grain growth as those which tion, in contrast to a maximum thickness deviation of
do not contain the second phase. In this case, it is con- 6% with the conventional steel. Thus, reforming is also
sidered that Goss grains are formed from high strain unnecessary with the developed steel due to its excellent
areas corresponding to the deformation bands in ferrite
grains9) and consume the {111} grains developed dur-
Developed steel Conventional steel
ing cold rolling. On the other hand, in steel A, which has
small planar anisotropy, even though partial recrystalliza-
tion begins at 530°C and small crystallized grains can be
observed partially at 590°C, the steel assumes a mixed-
grain structure consisting of extremely large recrystal-
lized grains (center photo) and a fine unrecrystallized
structure. From Fig. 1 and Photo 1, it is considered that 10 µm

the {111} and {110} orientations developed during cold Photo 2 Microstructures of steels
rolling are maintained by in-situ recrystallization,10)
but {111} grains then grow by abnormal grain growth Table 1 Mechanical properties of steels
accompanying coarsening of cementite in the subsequent
YP TS El mean-
heating-up stage, while achievement of {110} grains is r0° r45° r90° ∆r
(MPa) (MPa) (%) r
suppressed. The fact that some slight achievement of the Developed
380 470 39 1.06 0.98 1.01 0.06 1.01
Goss orientation can be observed is attributed to the par- steel
tial formation of recrystallized grains (small recrystal- Conventional
290 500 35 1.25 0.95 1.38 0.37 1.14
lized grains which formed at 590°C), as in steel A, and steel

46 JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 4 (Nov. 2004)

 High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets Suitable for One-Piece Forming—

800
Developed steel Induction coil
700

Vickers hardness, HV
600
φ100
500 Conven-
tional steel
400 Specimen: 100 mm φ
Heating condition: After reaching 1 000°C
At the outer surface (3.4 s), water cooled.
300 (Average cooling speed: 582°C/s)
Developed steel Conventional steel
200
Photo 3 Appearance of cup cylinder tested pieces
100
0 2 4 6 8 10
42
Distance from the outer surface (mm)
Arrow is rolling direction.
mean measured points.
Fig. 4 Hardness distribution after induction heating
0° 180°
Wall height (mm)

40 45° 135°
90°
Developed steel
applied to the parts with complex shapes.
38
2.3.3 Hardenability of developed steel

Conventional steel A hardenability evaluation was performed using

36
100 mm in diameter blanks finished by machining the
18
edges. While rotating the samples at 70 rpm, the outer
Thickness increase (%)

16 Conventional steel edge was rapidly heated to 1 000°C with an induc-

14 tion heating device. The samples were then quenched
12 in water, and their hardness distribution was measured.
10
Figure 4 indicates that the developed steel has excellent
Developed steel
hardenability, displaying an HV value 80 points higher
8
0 45 90 135 150 than that of the conventional steel at the extreme surface
Angle from rolling direction (°) layer on the outer circumference, which is essential for
Fig. 2 Change in wall height and wall thickness wear resistance. Thus, reducing the cementite diameter
to the submicron size not only enables texture control,
but also improves low-temperature, short-time harden-
thickness accuracy. ability. As practical benefits, adoption of low-tempera-
The most critical property for power train parts is ture, short-time heat treatment reduces thermal strain in
circularity. As can be seen in Fig. 3, in the cup cylinder the product, while also contributing to higher productiv-
test, the conventional steel showed large deviations in ity and energy saving.
outer diameter at a 45° pitch, corresponding to the wall
2.4 Examples of Application
height and thickness addition. In contrast, the developed
steel was virtually free of deviations in outer diameter At present, the non-oriented high-carbon cold-rolled
over the entire 360° circumference. (The broken lines steel sheets have been commercialized in grades from
in Fig. 3 show true circularity.) Thus, the developed S35C to SK5. Application is being promoted in multiple
steel displays excellent circularity after drawing, elim- directions from the viewpoints of excellent formability
inating the need for a shape reforming process. More- and hardenability as well as uniform mechanical prop-
over, because the developed steel also possesses high erties. As examples, the S35C material is applied to the
elongation, it has excellent press formability and can be one-piece drive plate with ring gear and SK5 in bearing
parts.
(mm) 0°
26.35
26.30
Conventional steel 3. High-Carbon Hot-Rolled Steel Sheet
26.25 with Excellent Stretch-Flange Formability
26.20 Developed steel (Hyper Burring SC)
26.15
26.10
270° 90° Conventionally, many automatic transmission clutch
hub/drum and planetary carrier parts have been man-
ufactured by press-forming the cylindrical parts from
low-carbon hot-rolled steel, while producing cast and
180° forged parts for bosses separately from special steel, and
Fig. 3 Appearance change of test pieces after cup cylin- then joining the respective parts by electron beam weld-
der test ing. One-piece forming from steel sheets has been pro-

JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 4 (Nov. 2004) 47

 High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets Suitable for One-Piece Forming—

gressively adopted in recent years, but in many cases, tively. The developed steel consists of uniform fine fer-
low-carbon hot-rolled steel sheets with high formabil- rite grains, and cementite is uniformly and finely dis-
ity are used as the material. In hydraulic parts for CVT, persed by nearly 100% spheroidization. In contrast, the
post-thickness addition is possible by performing com- cementite in the conventional steel is dispersed non-
pressive forming on a cup-shaped sheet while simulta- uniformly, and furthermore, remains in lamellar form.
neous expanding the cylindrical part.11) With complex- The developed steel has excellent formability, with a
shaped parts of this type, excellent formability is also hole-expanding ratio (λ) of 80% and high elongation of
a requirements for boss forming and thickness addition 38%. In the hole-expansion test, a flat punch was used
when performing one-piece forming and post-heat treat- in consideration of forming conditions and the fact that
ment with high-carbon steel sheets, for example, as seen the sheet thicknesses applicable to power train parts
in drive plates. In particular, burring formability and a are large, and burr due to punching punch was evalu-
high deformation capacity (local ductility) during heavy ated on the die side. Photo 5 shows the cross-sectional
forming are essential. To meet these requirements, the microstructure in the vicinity of the punched edge in the
authors developed a hot-rolled high-carbon spheroidiz- hole-expansion test. With the conventional steel, voids
ing annealed steel sheet with an excellent hole- following band-like lamellar cementite are already inter-
expansion property by applying microstructural control connected in the punching step, prior to hole expansion,
using a rapid cooling system in the run-out table of the which results in cracking. In contrast, with the devel-
hot-rolling process. oped steel, which has a high hole-expansion property,
only very slight occurrence of voids could be observed.
3.1 Features of In the post-heat treatment made by induction heating,
Hot-Rolled High-Carbon Steel Sheet there are cases in which parts are required to provide
with Excellent Stretch-Flange Formability strength of the 440 MPa level, including non-heat treated
areas, and in this case, the strength-λ balance becomes
3.1.1 Microstructure and mechanical properties
important. Figure 5 shows the balance of properties in
Table 2 shows the chemical compositions of the the developed steel. It satisfies the hardness requirement
developed JIS S35C equivalent high-carbon steel sheet for the JIS S35C cold-rolled spheroidizing annealed
with an excellent hole-expansion property and the con- material at HV: 170 or less, and has a high hole-
ventional one. In both steels, the content of S, which expansion property while also securing tensile strength
has a large effect on the hole-expansion property, 12) is (TS) of 440 MPa. Based on these properties, high dura-
0.002 mass%. The in microstructure and mechanical bility can be obtained in non-heat treated parts, allow-
properties are shown in Photo 4 and Table 3, respec-

Developed steel Conventional steel

Table 2 Chemical composition of steels
(mass%)
C Si Mn P S
Developed steel 0.33 0.19 0.74 0.017 0.002
Conventional steel 0.34 0.18 0.76 0.017 0.002
Void and
Micro crack
20 µm
Developed steel Conventional steel

Photo 5 Microstructures of steels

Vickers hardness, HV
120 130 140 150 160 170 180
90
High

S35C Developed steel

80 TS
Hole expansion ratio, λ (%)

λ
10 µm 3
00 TS
00 λ
Thickening ratio

70 4
00
Photo 4 Microstructures of steels 00
60
TS
λ2
50 0 000
Table 3 Mechanical properties of steels
40
Low

YP TS El λ* Hardness, Conventional steel

30
(MPa) (MPa) (%) (%) HV/HRB 400 450 500 550 600
Developed steel 386 488 38 80 150/78 Tensile strength (MPa)
Conventional steel 317 506 33 44 156/82 Fig. 5 Comparison of hole expansion ratio-strength
* Hole expansion ratio, Clearance: 20% balance of S35C hot rolled steels

48 JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 4 (Nov. 2004)

 High-Carbon Steel Sheets for Power Train Parts—Formable High-Carbon Steel Sheets Suitable for One-Piece Forming—

High
160 one-piece drive plate with ring gear.

Hole expansion ratio, λ (%)

140 Developed steel

Thickening ratio
120 (S35C)
100 4. Conclusion
80
60 As materials for automotive power train parts, two
40 types of new formable high-carbon steel sheets for one-

Low
20
5 10 15 20 Machined
piece forming were developed by controlling the recrys-
Clearance tallization texture and microstructure using JIS S35C, as
Fig. 6 Effect of clearance and machined on hole summarized below.
expansion ratio (1) The non-oriented high-carbon cold-rolled steel sheet
features extremely small planar anisotropy of the
Developed steel Conventional steel
r-value (∆r) and has excellent formability and harde-
nability with low-temperature, short-time heating. It
is suitable for parts which require high dimensional
accuracy.
(2) The hot-rolled high-carbon steel sheet with excellent
stretch-flange formability (Hyper-Burring SC) pos-
sesses an excellent burring property and punchabil-
Photo 6 Hole expanded test piece (S35C)
ity as a result of structural control by a rapid cooling
system in the run-out table of the hot-rolling process,
ing gauge reduction (reduction of excess material thick- and is an optimum material for differential-thickness
ness). parts manufactured by thickness-addition forming.
It has long been known that the hole-expansion prop-
erty is affected by the punching clearance. Likewise,
References
with this newly developed high-carbon steel sheet, Fig. 6
shows that the hole-expansion property is approximately 1) Fujita, T. et al. Development of non-oriented cold-rolled high-
carbon steel sheet. Materia Jpn. vol. 40, no. 3, 2001, p. 283–
λ  60% at clearances of 5% and 12.5%, but improves
285.
to λ  87% at a clearance of 20%. With machined holes 2) Fujita, T. et al. Development of non-oriented cold-rolled high-
(reaming in circumferential direction), the hole expan- carbon steel sheet. Kinzoku. vol. 73, no. 2, 2003, p. 16–21.
3) Fujita, T. et al. “The application of steel sheet and develop-
sion property is excellent, at λ  147%, because damage
ment of high-carbon steel sheet for power transmission.” Proc.
to the edge surface is extremely slight. of 2001 JSAE Material Forum. 2003, p. 23–28.
4) Bickwede, D. J. “Sheet steel-micrometallurgy by the mil-
3.1.2 Simulated forming of boss parts lions.” ASM 1968 Campbell Memorial Lecture. vol. 61, 1968,
p. 662–679.
The appearance of samples after a hole- 5) Tosaka, A. et al. Hard- and soft-tempered formable ultra-thin
expanding test simulating boss forming is shown in sheet steels for cans. Kawasaki Steel Giho. vol. 30, no. 3,
Photo 6. Although difficult with the conventional steel, 1998, p. 165–170.
6) Ray, R. K.; Jonas, J. J.; Butron-Guillen, M. P.; Savoie, J. Int.
the possibility of boss forming is greatly increased with Mat. Rev. vol. 39, no. 4, 1994, p. 1.
the developed high-carbon steel sheet, and the one-piece 7) Nakamura, N. et al. Effect of Hot-band’s microstructure on
forming and post-thickness addition are easy. Due to texture formation of cold-rolled high carbon steel sheet.
CAMP-ISIJ. vol. 14, 2001, p. 1391.
uniform fine dispersion of cementite carbides, the devel- 8) Fujita, T. et al. “Effect of microstructure prior to cold-
oped steel also has excellent low-temperature, short- rolling on planar anisotropy of r-value in cold-rolled high car-
time hardenability with induction heating and possesses bon steel sheets. Collected Abstracts of the 2003 Autumn
Meeting of the Japan Institute of Metals, p. 530.
excellent punchability and uniformity in punched edges. 9) Furubayashi, E. An origin of the recrystallized grains with
preferred orientations in cold rolled Fe-3% Si alloy. Tetsu-to-
3.2 Examples of Application Hagané. vol. 56, no. 6, 1970, p. 734–750.
10) Furubayashi, E. Critical review on the recrystallization in situ.
Because the developed steel has excellent thickness Tetsu-to-Hagané. vol. 70, no. 15, 1984, p. 1816–1818.
addition formability by press forming and cold forg- 11) Ishihara, S. et al. Multi action press forming method of thick
ing, application to numerous parts which require post- sheet metal. J. of the JSTP. vol. 44, no. 507, 2003, p. 409–413.
12) Kinoshita, M. et al. Hot rolled high strength steel sheets with
thickness addition is under study. Examples include the high stretch flangeability for automotive use. NKK Technical
clutch hub/drum, planetary carrier, CVT piston, and Report. no. 145, 1994, p. 1–7.

JFE TECHNICAL REPORT No. 4 (Nov. 2004) 49