A steel sheet according to the present invention has a specific chemical composition and a steel microstructure including, in terms of area fraction, ferrite: 20% or more and 60% or less, a total of bainite and tempered martensite: 25% or more and 60% or less, retained austenite: 7% or more and 20% or less, fresh martensite: 8% or more and 40% or less, and the remainder: 5% or less. Cementite particles are present in the retained austenite, a ratio of an area fraction of the cementite particles in the retained austenite to an area fraction of the retained austenite is 5% or more and 25% or less, and the steel sheet has a tensile strength of 980 MPa or more.

A zinc-plated steel sheet for hot stamping according to an aspect of the present invention includes a steel substrate and a plated layer provided on a surface of the steel substrate, in which the steel substrate contains, in % by mass, C: 0.10 to 0.5%, Si: 0.7 to 2.5%, Mn: 1.0 to 3%, and Al: 0.01 to 0.5%, with the balance being iron and inevitable impurities, and the steel substrate has, in the inside thereof, an internal oxide layer consists of an oxide containing at least one of Si and Mn having a thickness of 1 μm or more, and a decarburized layer having a thickness of 20 μm or less from an interface with the plated layer toward an internal direction of the steel substrate.

A method for producing a high-strength hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet, in which a high-strength steel sheet is used as a base material, includes a rolling step (x) of rolling a hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet with a coating layer having an Fe concentration of 8% to 17% by mass, and a heat treatment step (y) of heating the coated steel sheet which has been subjected to the rolling step (x) under the conditions satisfying the following formulae (1) and (2):
(273+T)×(20+2×log.sub.10(t))≥8000  (1)
40≤T≤160  (2) where T: heating temperature (° C.) of the coated steel sheet, and t: holding time (hr) at the heating temperature T.

A plated steel sheet includes: a steel sheet; and a plating layer that is formed on at least a part of a surface of the steel sheet, in which a chemical composition of the plating layer includes, by mass %, Al: more than 5.00% and 35.00% or less, Mg: 3.00% to 15.00%, Si: 0% to 2.00%, Ca: 0% to 2.00%, and a remainder of Zn and impurities, in which in a cross section of the plating layer in a thickness direction, the area ratio of a lamellar structure in which an (Al—Zn) phase and a MgZn.sub.2 phase are arranged in layers is 10% to 90%, a lamellar spacing of the lamellar structure is 2.5 μm or less, and the area ratio of an (Al—Zn) dendrite is 35% or less.

A coated metal sheet includes a steel substrate and a coating on at least one surface of the steel substrate. The coating includes between 0.2 and 0.7% by weight of Al, with a remainder of the metal coating being Zn and inevitable impurities. The coated metal sheet was subjected to a skin pass operation after coating. An outer surface of the metal coating has a waviness Wa.sub.0.8 of less than or equal to 0.55 μm.

A method for producing a zinc or zinc-alloy coated steel sheet with a tensile strength higher than 900 MPa, for the fabrication of resistance spot welds containing in average not more than two Liquid Metal Embrittlement cracks per weld having a depth of 100 μm or more, with steps of providing a cold-rolled steel sheet, heating cold-rolled steel sheet up to a temperature T1 between 550° C. and Ac1+50° C. in a furnace zone with an atmosphere (A1) containing from 2 to 15% hydrogen by volume, so that the iron is not oxidized, then adding in the furnace atmosphere, water steam or oxygen with an injection flow rate Q higher than (0.07%/h×α), α being equal to 1 if said element is water steam or equal to 0.52 if said element is oxygen, at a temperature T≥T1, so to obtain an atmosphere (A2) with a dew point DP2 between −15° C. and the temperature Te of the iron/iron oxide equilibrium dew point, then heating the sheet from temperature T.sub.1 up to a temperature T.sub.2 between 720° C. and 1000° C. in a furnace zone under an atmosphere (A2) of nitrogen containing from 2 to 15% hydrogen and more than 0.1% CO by volume, with an oxygen partial pressure higher than 10.sup.−21 atm., wherein the duration t.sub.D of heating of the sheet from temperature T.sub.1 up to the end of soaking at temperature T.sub.2 is between 100 and 500 s., soaking the sheet at T.sub.2, then cooling the sheet at a rate between 10 and 400° C./s, then coating the sheet with zinc or zinc-alloy coating.

A continuous hot-dip galvanizing apparatus has a vertical annealing furnace, one or more hearth rolls, a hot-dip galvanizing apparatus, an alloying line, and humidified gas supply ports. When the steel sheet having a Si content of 0.2 mass % or more is conveyed inside the annealing furnace, the humidified gas supply ports positioned in a latter part of the soaking zone supply the humidified gas to the soaking zone and the at least one dry gas supply port supplies the dry gas to the soaking zone. When the steel sheet having a Si content of less than 0.2 mass % is conveyed inside the annealing furnace, the plurality of the humidified gas supply ports do not supply the humidified gas to the soaking zone and the at least one dry gas supply port supplies the dry gas to the soaking zone.

A method for producing a high-strength hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet, in which a high-strength steel sheet is used as a base material, includes a rolling step (x) of rolling a hot-dip galvannealed steel sheet with a coating layer having an Fe concentration of 8% to 17% by mass, and a heat treatment step (y) of heating the coated steel sheet which has been subjected to the rolling step (x) under the conditions satisfying the following formulae (1) and (2):
(273+T)×(20+2×log.sub.10(t))≥8000  (1)
40≤T≤160  (2) where T: heating temperature (° C.) of the coated steel sheet, and t: holding time (hr) at the heating temperature T.

The present invention relates to an ultra-high strength, hot-dip galvanized steel sheet having excellent surface quality and coating adherence and to a method for manufacturing thereof, the ultra-high strength, hot-dip galvanized steel sheet comprising: 0.1-0.3% by weight carbon (C); 0.1-2.0% by weight silicon (Si); 0.005-1.5% by weight aluminum (Al); 1.5-3.5% by weight manganese (Mn); 0.04% by weight or less phosphorus (P) (excluding 0% by weight); 0.015% by weight or less sulphur (S) (excluding 0% by weight); 0.02% by weight or less nitrogen (N) (excluding 0% by weight); the balance being Fe; and other inevitable impurities, and further comprising 0.01 wt.% to 0.07 wt.% of at least one kind of element selected from the group consisting of bismuth (Bi), tin (Sn) and antimony (Sb).

A high-strength plated steel sheet has a plated layer on the surface of a base steel sheet and contains predetermined steel components. The steel sheet includes, in the order from the interface of the base steel sheet and the plated layer towards the base steel sheet: a soft layer having a Vickers hardness that is 90% or less of the Vickers hardness at a portion t/4 of the base steel sheet, where t is a sheet thickness of the base steel sheet; and a hard layer containing martensite and bainite, and ferrite in predetermined ranges. The average depth D of the soft layer is 20 μm or greater, and the average depth d of an internal oxide layer is 4 μm or greater and smaller than D.