A process and assembly for heat treating portions of a steel article, such as an advanced high strength (AHSS) steel or Gen3 steel, in order to create each of hard and transition zones in a nominally hard steel stamping, such as in a vehicle's structural stampings including a pillar, in order to design deformation zones during a collision event. In an initial operation, the invention provides for positioning of heating elements at locations along such as a blank shaped steel article. Following an initial heating, a suitable forming or stamping operation is employed to bend or reform the article with the heated zones defining the bend axles or points within the article. Following the initial heating and bending/stamping operations, additional heating elements can be positioned, such as against outer flange locations of the previously stamped article, following which a subsequent trimming or final fabricating step is employed to complete the article.

A method for heat treatment of an object of sheet metal, including heating at least one selected portion of the object using an energy beam, where the beam is projected onto a surface of the object so as to produce a primary spot on the object, the beam being repetitively scanned in two dimensions in accordance with a first scanning pattern so as to establish an effective spot on the object, the effective spot having a two-dimensional energy distribution, where the effective spot is displaced in relation to the surface of the object to progressively heat said at least one selected portion of the object.

A repaired article includes a body extending between a first side and a second side. The body has a repair section with an associated thickness between the first side and the second side. The repair section includes regions of plastic deformation distributed through the thickness. A gas turbine engine including the body is also disclosed.

A method of tempering a plate workpiece entails first fitting the plate workpiece with a shield between first and second shield parts each having a respective mask element so as to cover only an edge region of the workpiece while leaving a more central region of the workpiece exposed. The shield and workpiece are then put in an oven with the plate workpiece fitted between the first and second shield parts. The shield also comprises first and second seals on the first and second parts confronting each other and each displaceable on the respective part between a closely juxtaposed working position in which inner portions of the seals are spaced apart by a distance equal generally to a thickness of the plate workpiece and outer portions of the seal bear on each other and a starting position spaced more widely from and out of engagement with each other. The seals engage and clamp the workpiece in the working position.

A welded steel part with a very high mechanical strength is provided. The welded steel part is obtained by heating followed by hot forming, then cooling of at least one welded blank obtained by butt welding of at least one first and one second sheet. The at least one first and second sheets including, at least in part, a steel substrate and a pre-coating which includes an intermetallic alloy layer in contact with the steel substrate, topped by a metal alloy layer of aluminum or aluminum-based alloy. A method for the fabrication of a welded steel part and the fabrication of structural or safety parts for automotive vehicles are also provided.

A seamless steel pipe has a composition containing, by mass %, C: 0.15 to 0.50%, Si: 0.1 to 1.0%, Mn: 0.3 to 1.0%, P: 0.015% or less, S: 0.005% or less, Al: 0.01 to 0.1%, N: 0.01% or less, Cr: 0.1 to 1.7%, Mo: 0.40 to 1.1%, V: 0.01 to 0.12%, Nb: 0.01 to 0.08%, Ti: 0.03% or less, and B: 0.0005 to 0.003%, a structure composed of a tempered martensite phase as a main phase with a prior austenite grain size of 8.5 or more, and a hardness distribution in which in four portions 90 apart from each other in the circumferential direction, hardness is 295 HV10 or less in any one of an inner surface-side region at 2.54 to 3.81 mm from the inner surface of the pipe, an outer surface side-region at the same distance from the outer surface of the pipe, and a center of the thickness.

A component formation and hardening process, and component (18, 30, 32, 36 and 50) made therefrom are provided. The process includes providing a steel blank (10) and inserting the blank (10) into a press (14), preliminarily stamping the steel blank (2) using a stamping press to form a preliminarily stamped intermediate component (22) and laser hardening (3, 3) the preliminarily stamped intermediate component in selected regions of the stamped component. Subsequent to the step of laser hardening, the preliminarily stamped intermediate component is further stamped (4) to form a stamped component (18). The stamped component (18) is then ejected (5) from the stamping press as a stamped component with selectively hardened regions. The component made by the process has a defined load path based on regions that have been hardened and regions that retain the material characteristics.

A welded member includes: a first steel sheet including a base steel sheet and a zinc-based plating layer formed on a surface of the base steel sheet; and a second steel sheet spot-welded on the first steel sheet and facing the zinc-based plating layer of the first steel sheet, a spot-welded zone being formed between the first steel sheet and the second steel sheet. A surface layer of the base steel sheet has a decarburization ratio of 30% or more. The decarburization ratio is represented by equation: Decarburization ratio (%) of surface layer=(1average carbon concentration in surface layer/bulk carbon concentration)*100 where the surface layer refers to a region of the base steel sheet from the surface thereof to a depth of 35 m. A shoulder portion of the spot-welded zone includes a B-type crack having a length of 100 m or less, and no C-type crack.

A method for heat treatment of an object of sheet metal, includes the step of heating at least one selected portion of the object using an energy beam. The beam is projected onto a surface of the object so as to produce a primary spot on the object, the beam being repetitively scanned in two dimensions in accordance with a scanning pattern so as to establish an effective spot on the object, the effective spot having a two-dimensional energy distribution. The effective spot is displaced in relation to the surface of the object to progressively heat the at least one selected portion of the object. The scanning pattern includes interconnected curved segments.

A method that improves stretch flange formability of a steel sheet by individual treatment matching a material of the steel sheet without performing heat treatment in a die. This method is a method for manufacturing a steel sheet for cold press, and the steel sheet is manufactured by heating an edge of the steel sheet to a temperature within a heating temperature range preset according to a microstructure of the steel sheet and cooling the steel sheet. A region, within an edge of the steel sheet subjected to shearing in a shearing step, where it is estimated that a stretch flange crack is likely to occur when a press component is formed by cold pressing is determined, and a site to be heated and cooled is set within the region. By press-forming the manufactured steel sheet, a target press component is manufactured.