Press apparatus and methods for manufacturing hot formed structural components are provided. The apparatus comprise a fixed lower body, and a mobile upper body. The apparatus comprise a cooling tool and a press tool which is arranged downstream from the cooling tool, and a blank transfer mechanism to transfer the blank from the cooling tool to the press tool. The cooling tool has an upper gas cooling tool connected to the mobile upper body and/or a lower gas cooling tool connected to the fixed lower body. The press tool comprises an upper pressing die connected to the upper body and a lower pressing die is connected to the lower body.

Disclosed is a hot-pressed member that can exhibit very high tensile strength after hot pressing of 1780 MPa or more, excellent delayed fracture resistance, and high cross tensile strength after resistance spot welding by properly adjusting its chemical composition and its microstructure such that a prior austenite average grain size is 8 μm or less, a volume fraction of martensite is 90% or more, and at least 10 cementite grains having a grain size of 0.05 μm or more are present on average per 200 μm.sup.2 of a cross section parallel to a thickness direction of the member, and such that at least 10 Ti-based precipitates having a grain size of less than 0.10 μm are present on average per 100 μm.sup.2 of the cross section parallel to the thickness direction of the member in a range of 100 μm in the thickness direction from a surface of the member.

To establish a method for obtaining a hot-press-formed steel member, which exhibits high strength, high tensile elongation (ductility) and high bendability, thereby having excellent deformation characteristics at the time of collision crush (crashworthiness), and which is capable of ensuring excellent delayed fracture resistance. A method for producing a hot-press-formed steel member by heating a steel sheet, which has a chemical component composition containing 0.10% (% by mass, and hereinafter the same shall apply) to 0.30% (inclusive) of C, 1.0% to 2.5% (inclusive) of Si, 1.0% to 3.0% (inclusive) of Si and Al in total and 1.5% to 3.0% (inclusive) of Mn, with the balance consisting of iron and unavoidable impurities, and hot press forming the steel sheet one or more times. The method for producing a hot-press-formed steel member is characterized in that: the heating temperature is set to not less than the Ac3 transformation point; the starting temperature of the hot pressing is set to not more than the heating temperature but not less than the Ms point; and the average cooling rate from (the Ms point−150)° C. to 40° C. is set to 5° C./s or less.

A hot-stamped and trimmed part is produced by hot pressing a blank and then cutting off an excess outer peripheral portion by laser machining, an outer peripheral shape of the hot-stamped and trimmed part includes a laser trim line formed by cutting in the laser machining, and a press trim line formed by shearing in the hot pressing or pressing performed before the hot pressing, and the laser trim line and the press trim line are connected via a projecting corner portion.

A method for producing a molded article includes the steps of: preparing a first steel plate and a second steel plate. The first steel plate and the second steel plate are joined to each other, thereby preparing a joined steel plate. The joined steel plate is heated at a temperature between 910° C. and 950° C. The heated joined steel plate is then subjected to hot-press molding, thereby preparing an intermediate molded article; and cooling the intermediate molded article, wherein the first steel plate has a tensile strength (TS) higher than that of the second steel plate.

A wheel disc including a bolt hole for bolt fastening, includes a first region extending to have a predetermined width in a circumferential direction of the bolt hole and a second region, other than the first region, wherein the first region has an average tensile strength lower than that of the second region.

Coated tool for hot stamping of coated or uncoated sheet metals, in particular for hot stamping of AlSi- or Zn-coated sheet metals.sub.[KM2], comprising a coated substrate surface to be in contact with the coated or uncoated metal sheet, wherein the coating in the coated substrate surface is a multi-layer coating comprising one or more inferior layers and one or more superior layers, where the inferior layers are deposited closer to the substrate surface than the superior layers, whereas: —the inferior layers are designed for providing load bearing capacity, —the superior layers are designed for providing galling resistance, —at least one superior layer (layer 5) is deposited having a multi-nanolayer structure formed by sublayers of the type A, B and C, said three kind of sublayers being nanolayers deposited alternate one on each other forming a sequence of the type . . . A/B/C/A/B/C/A . . . , wherein at least two sequences of one A nanolayer, one B nanolayer and one C nanolayer are deposited forming the multi-nanolayer structure wherein: —the nanolayer of type A is composed in at least 90 at.-% of chromium and nitrogen, —the nanolayer of type B is composed in at least 90 at.-% of titanium, aluminum and nitrogen, —the nanolayer of type C is composed I at least 90 at.-% of vanadium carbon and nitrogen, and —the layer thickness of the at least one superior layer (layer 5) is not lower than 0.5 μm and not higher than 15 μm.

A sheet metal blank is hot-stamped between first and second tool surfaces of first and second die tools, respectively, to form a hot-stamped product. That product is then heat treated between the first and second tool surfaces. An actively cooled portion of the tool surfaces quenches part of the hot-stamped product to form a hardened zone. An actively heated portion of the tool surfaces slows heat transfer from the hot-stamped product to the heated portion, which causes the hot-stamped product to have a soft zone. A matrix of insulating gaps is formed in the heated portion to further slow the rate of heat transfer from the hot-stamped product to the heated portion. The insulating gaps may facilitate the use of a lower-temperature heated portion, which may consequently save energy and result in the heated portion having greater wear resistance and longer life.

Disclosed is a hot-pressed member that can exhibit very high tensile strength after hot pressing as high as TS: 1780 MPa or more, excellent resistance to resistance welding cracking, and excellent delayed fracture resistance after resistance welding by having a specific chemical composition, and a microstructure such that a prior austenite average grain size is 7 μm or less, a volume fraction of martensite is 90% or more, and at least 5 Nb-based precipitates having a grain size of less than 0.08 μm are present on average per 100 μm.sup.2 of a cross section parallel to a thickness direction of the member within a range of 100 μm in the thickness direction from a surface of the member, and such that a Ni diffusion region having a thickness of 0.5 μm or more is present in a surface layer of the member.

The invention relates to a method for producing a component having a bottom region, optionally a bottom-body transition region, optionally a body region, optionally a body-flange transition region and optionally a flange region, wherein a semifinished product made of a plastically deformable material is provided, wherein the semifinished product has a longitudinal extent and a transverse extent having a circumferential edge contour having a separating surface, wherein the semifinished product is processed in one or more stages in one or more tools to produce the component. Moreover, the invention relates to a tool for producing a component.