High strength steel sheet having a tensile strength of 800 MPa or more comprising a middle part in sheet thickness and a soft surface layer arranged at one side or both sides of the middle part in sheet thickness, wherein each soft surface layer has a thickness of more than 10 μM and 30% or less of the sheet thickness, the soft surface layer has an average Vickers hardness of more than 0.60 time and 0.90 time or less the average Vickers hardness of the sheet thickness 1/2 position, and the soft surface layer has a nano-hardness standard deviation of 0.8 or less is provided.

The present invention is a production method of a hot-dip galvanized steel sheet including annealing a belt-shaped steel sheet having a Si content of greater than or equal to 0.2% by mass, wherein the annealing is continuously carried out using an annealing furnace having an oxidation heating zone and a reduction heating zone in this order, while the steel sheet is fed using rollers. The annealing includes oxidizing a surface of the steel sheet in the oxidation heating zone at a temperature at which roll pickup does not occur and reducing an iron oxide layer, formed by the oxidizing, in the reduction heating zone before the iron oxide layer reaches an initial roller in the reduction heating zone.

In one aspect of the present invention, a hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet includes a steel sheet and a hot-dip galvannealed layer on the surface of the steel sheet. The steel sheet has a predetermined composition and has an average oxygen concentration of 0.10 mass % or less in the region of 1 μm from the interface between the steel sheet and the hot-dip galvannealed layer toward the steel sheet. The metal microstructure of the steel sheet at a position of t/4 where t represents the sheet thickness of the hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet includes 50 to 85 area % of martensite, 15 to 50 area % of bainite, and 5 area % or less of ferrite.

This hot rolled steel sheet is a hot rolled steel sheet including a base steel sheet and a scale formed on a surface of the base steel sheet, in which the base steel sheet has a predetermined chemical composition, the scale has a layer structure composed of wustite, magnetite, and hematite in order from the base steel sheet side or a layer structure composed of the wustite and the magnetite in order from the base steel sheet side, and, when a thickness of the scale is represented by s, a thickness of the hematite is represented by h, and a thickness of the magnetite is represented by m, the s, the h, and the m satisfy formula (1) and formula (2).

(h+m)/s<0.20  Formula (1)

h≤m/4  Formula (2)

A high-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet has a hot-dip galvanized layer on a surface of the steel sheet, a specific component composition, and a steel microstructure containing, on an area percentage basis, 0% to 15% of ferrite and upper bainite in total, 80% to 100% of lower bainite and martensite in total, and 0% to 10% of retained austenite, and containing precipitates having a particle size of 100 to 2,000 nm in an amount of 10.sup.9 to 10.sup.12 particles/m.sup.2 in a region extending to a position 100 to 300 μm from the surface layer of the steel sheet, in which the ratio of the average amount of C at a position 5 μm from the surface layer of the steel sheet to the average amount of C at a position 70 μm from the surface layer of the steel sheet in the thickness direction is 0.20 to 0.80.

Provided is a plated steel sheet for hot press forming, having an excellent impact property, including: a base steel sheet comprising, by wt %, 0.15-0.4% of C, 0.05-1.0% of Si, 0.6-3.0% of Mn, 0.001-0.05% of P, 0.0001-0.02% of S, 0.01-0.1% of Al, 0.001-0.02% of N, 0.001-0.01% of B, 0.01-0.5% of Cr, 0.01-0.05% of Ti, and the balance of Fe and inevitable impurities; and an Al—Si plated layer formed on the surface of the base steel sheet. A thickness of a carbon-depleted layer in a surface layer part of the base steel sheet is 5 μm or less. The surface layer part means a region from the surface of the base steel sheet to a depth of 200 μm, and the carbon-depleted layer means a region which the carbon content is 50% or less of an average carbon amount (C.sub.0) of the base steel sheet.

An aluminum-based coating of a flat steel product is applied in a hot-dipping method and comprises a mass percentage of silicon within a given range. The coating for a flat steel product, in particular for press mold hardening components, offers a shortened required minimum oven dwell time and a sufficiently large processing window when heating in an oven. This is achieved in that the surface of the coating has a degree of absorption for thermal radiation ranging between 0.35 and 0.95 prior to an annealing treatment, where the degree of absorption relates to an oven temperature ranging from 880 to 950° C. during the austenitizing annealing treatment. The invention additionally relates to an improved method for producing a flat steel product with an aluminum-based coating, to an inexpensive method for producing press-hardened components from such flat steel products, and to a press-hardened component made of such flat steel products.

A high-strength hot-dip galvanized steel sheet includes a hot-dip galvanized layer on a surface of the steel sheet and has a specific component composition and a steel microstructure containing, on an area percentage basis, 90% to 100% of martensite and carbide-containing bainite in total and 0% to 10% of retained austenite, and containing prior austenite grains having an aspect ratio of 2.0 or less, in a region extending from 300 μm to 400 μm from the surface layer, in which the ratio of the average amount of C at 5 μm from the surface layer to the average amount of C at 70 μm from the surface layer is 0.2 to 0.8, and the ratio of the standard deviation of the amount of C to the average amount of C in a region extending from 300 μm to 400 μm from the surface layer is 0.40 or less.

A hot-rolled steel sheet according to the present invention includes, as a chemical composition, by mass %: C: 0.030% to 0.250%; Si: 0.05% to 2.50%; Mn: 1.00% to 4.00%; Sol. Al: 0.001% to 2.000%; P: 0.100% or less; S: 0.0200% or less; N: 0.01000% or less; Ti: 0% to 0.20%; Nb: 0% to 0.20; B: 0% to 0.010%; V: 0% to 1.0%; Cr: 0% to 1.0%; Mo: 0% to 1.0%; Cu: 0% to 1.0%; Co: 0% to 1.0%; W: 0% to 1.0%; Ni: 0% to 1.0%; Ca: 0% to 0.01%; Mg: 0% to 0.01%; REM: 0% to 0.01%; Zr: 0% to 0.01%; and a remainder consisting of Fe and impurities, in which an area ratio of a scale damage portion, which is a portion lower than an average height of a surface of the steel sheet by 10 μm or more, is 20% or less, and a tensile strength of the hot-rolled steel sheet is 780 MPa or more.

A method for producing a patterned stainless steel sheet with improved visual characteristics in the wavelength area of visible light including providing a deformed stainless steel sheet; performing a heat treatment on the deformed stainless steel sheet, wherein the heat treatment is conducted at a temperature of 900-1200° C.; performing a mechanical treatment on at least one surface of the heat treated stainless steel sheet; transferring the mechanically treated stainless steel sheet to a patterning process, wherein, in the patterning process, at least one side of the mechanically treated stainless steel sheet is patterned using a patterning roll having a surface with an emboss depth of up to 100 micrometers to provide a patterned stainless steel sheet; and performing a heat treatment on the patterned stainless steel sheet, wherein the heat treatment is conducted at a temperature range of 900-1200° C., wherein the mechanical treatment is carried out by blasting.