Provided is a hot-rolled coated steel sheet having a yield point elongation of less than 4% and a manufacturing method for the same. The hot-rolled steel sheet comprises, by weight, 0.03 to 0.06% of carbon (C), 0.5 to 1.5% of manganese (Mn), 0.01 to 0.25% of silicon (Si), 0.01 to 0.05% of aluminum (Al), 0.001 to 0.02% of phosphorus (P), 0.006% or less of sulfur (S), 0.0001 to 0.02% of titanium (Ti), 0.0001 to 0.03% of niobium (Nb), 0.001 to 0.005% of nitrogen (N), and a balance of iron (Fe) and inevitable impurities, wherein the Ti, Al and N satisfy the following relationship 1, and the Nb, C and N satisfy the following relationship 2: 0.03≤(wt % Ti)×(wt % Al)×(wt % N)×10.sup.6≤0.20 (1), and 22≤(mol % Nb)/{(mol % C)×(mol % N)}≤1826 (2).

Provided are a steel sheet having a tensile strength of 950 MPa or more and good toughness and a method for manufacturing the same. The steel sheet has a specific composition and a metallographic structure containing: a ferrite area fraction of 30% or less (including 0%), a tempered martensite area fraction of 70% or more (including 100%), and a retained austenite area fraction of 4.5% or less (including 0%), wherein the average aspect ratio of an iron based carbide, precipitated in tempered martensite grains, having a grain size in the largest 10% is 3.5 or more.

This coated steel member includes: a steel sheet substrate having a predetermined chemical composition; and a coating formed on a surface of the steel sheet substrate and containing Al and Fe, in which the coating has a low Al content region having an Al content of 3 mass % or more and less than 30 mass % and a high Al content region formed on a side closer to a surface than the low Al content region and having an Al content of 30 mass % or more, a maximum C content of the high Al content region is 25% or less of a C content of the steel sheet substrate, a maximum C content of the low Al content region is 40% or less of the C content of the steel sheet substrate, and a maximum C content in a range from an interface between the steel sheet substrate and the coating to a depth of 10 μm on a side of the steel sheet substrate is 80% or less of the C content of the steel sheet substrate.

Provided is a continuous hot-dip galvanizing apparatus comprising: a vertical annealing furnace having heating, soaking zone, and cooling zones therein; and a hot-dip galvanizing line downstream of the cooling zone. The heating, soaking, and cooling zones each have, in its upper portion, at least one upper hearth roll and, in its lower portion, at least one lower hearth roll. The soaking zone has a first and second humidified gas supply ports to supply a humidified gas having a dew point of 10° C. to 30° C. to the soaking zone. The first and second humidified gas supply ports are 1.0 m to 5.0 m lower than the center of the lower and upper hearth rolls, respectively, and overlap the steel sheet. The first humidified gas supply port is provided only for an ascending pass and the second humidified gas supply port is provided only for a descending pass.

A high-strength steel sheet excellent in formability, toughness and weldability has a chemical composition including: by mass %, C: 0.05 to 0.30%, Si: 2.50% or less, Mn: 0.50 to 3.50%, P: 0.100% or less, S: 0.0100% or less, Al: 0.001 to 2.500%, N: 0.0150% or less, O: 0.0050% or less, and the balance consisting of Fe and inevitable impurities. The high-strength steel sheet has a microstructure in a region from ⅛t (t: sheet thickness) to ⅜t (t: sheet thickness) from a steel sheet surface, the microstructure including: by volume %, acicular ferrite (3): 20% or more, and martensite (4):10% or more, aggregated ferrite: 20% or less, residual austenite: 2.0% or less, and the martensite satisfies a formula (A),

[00001]$\begin{array}{cc}\underset{i=1}{\overset{5}{.Math.}}\frac{d_i}{{a_i}^{1.5}}\le 10.0& \left(A\right)\end{array}$

A coated steel material including: a base steel, and a coating layer containing a Zn—Al—Mg alloy layer disposed on a surface of the base steel, wherein the coating layer has a predetermined chemical composition, and, in a backscattered electron image of the Zn—Al—Mg alloy layer that is obtained at a time of observing the surface of the Zn—Al—Mg alloy layer after polishing to ½ of the layer thickness, under a scanning electron microscope at a magnification of 100×, Al crystals are present, and the average value of the cumulative circumferential length of the Al crystals is 88 to 195 mm/mm.sup.2.

Provided are a method of predicting hydrogen content in steel of a steel strip etc. Provided is, in a continuous galvanizing line that performs manufacturing processes including an annealing process, a coating process, and a reheating process of a steel strip, a method of predicting hydrogen content in steel of a steel strip downstream of the reheating process, including acquiring at least one parameter selected from operation parameters of the continuous galvanizing line and transformation rate information measured in at least one of the annealing process and the reheating process as input data, and predicting hydrogen content in steel of a steel strip downstream of the reheating process using a prediction model of hydrogen content in steel that has been trained by machine learning and that outputs information on hydrogen content in steel of a steel strip downstream of the reheating process as output data.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a hot-dip galvanized steel sheet, comprising performing a heat treatment step, a hot dip plating step, and an alloying treatment step on a steel sheet having high Si and Mn content. The heat treatment step comprises a first heating phase and a soaking phase; a first heating atmosphere of the first heating stage contains 0.01-0.5% of O.sub.2 by volume, and the balance is N.sub.2 and inevitable impurities; a soaking atmosphere of the soaking stage contains 0.5% or more of H.sub.2 by volume, and the balance is N.sub.2 and inevitable impurities; dew points of the first heating atmosphere and the soaking atmosphere are controlled to be greater than or equal to −20° C. The present invention further provides a hot-dip galvanized steel sheet and a vehicle component. According to the present invention, by controlling the heat treatment atmospheres, the enrichment of Si and Mn alloy elements on the surface of the steel sheet, an interface between iron oxide and a base steel sheet, and an interface between reduced iron and the base steel sheet is suppressed, so that when a steel sheet having high Si and Mn content is selected as a base material for the hot-dip galvanized steel sheet, after undergoing the alloying treatment step, the hot-dip galvanized steel sheet can have both a plating layer of sufficient Fe content and a high elongation at break rate.

Equipment for the continuous hot dip-coating of a metal strip 9 including an annealing furnace, a tank 2 containing a liquid metal bath 3, a snout connecting the annealing furnace and tank 2, through which the metal strip 9 runs in a protective atmosphere and the lower part of the snout, the sabot 5, is at least partly immersed in the liquid metal bath 3 in order to define with the surface of the bath, and inside this snout, a liquid seal 6, an overflow 7 not connected to the snout, the overflow 7 including at least one tray 8, placed in the vicinity of the strip 9 when entering the liquid metal bath 3 and encompassed by liquid seal 6.

One aspect of the present invention relates to a plated steel sheet for hot press forming, having an excellent impact property.