Docol PHS 2000 hot-formed steel is an ultra-high-strength automotive steel with a tensile strength of up to 2000MPa, making it one of the highest-strength automotive steels currently available. The steel has a corresponding new grade, and its VDA name is CR1900T-MB-DS, which corresponds to the standard of SSAB steel grade Docol PHS 2000.

Mechanical Properties

Chemical Composition

Application areas of Docol PHS 2000 hot-formed steel

1. Protection of electric vehicle battery packs: The battery pack area is not allowed to be invaded during a collision, and the side impact test is particularly challenging for it. Docol PHS 2000 hot-formed steel can be used for safety components such as floor crossbeams, connecting the left and right side sill panels to protect electric vehicle batteries.

2. Traditional automotive safety components: This steel is not only suitable for electric vehicles, but also for internal combustion engine vehicles, and can be used in other application scenarios where PHS 1500MPa is traditionally used. Automotive designers can both take advantage of its maximum strength and reduce weight by reducing the material thickness.

3. Classic body structural parts: Classic applications in automobiles include A-pillars and B-pillars, and can also be used for roof side beams, side reinforcements, roof crossbeams, dashboard crossbeams, door anti-collision beams, windshield reinforcements and floor beams.

4. Lightweight components: Docol PHS 2000, developed by Swedish Steel Company (SSAB) and Gestamp, has a weight reduction of up to 17% compared to similar bumpers and is cost-effective.

Technical advantages and characteristics of Docol PHS 2000 hot-formed steel

1. High design freedom

Hot-formed parts can have different strength grades, and a hot-forming mold can be subdivided into multiple different quenching processes, such as creating a hot-forming soft zone. The unquenched part has a lower strength and can absorb high collision energy, and the quenched part has a high tensile strength and can withstand higher forces, such as the soft zone at the bottom of the car's B-pillar.

Unequal thickness plates and welded plates can be used. Cold-rolled unequal thickness plates have different thicknesses in different width sections, and can specify thick and thin areas according to the final requirements of the parts; welded plates can weld PHS strips of different thicknesses or even PHS strips with non-PHS strips.

Steel is heated to 900℃ for stamping. Designers can use its high tensile strength to design lighter parts, reduce the number of parts to achieve integration, or design soft areas to make parts perform better in collision tests.

2. Good shape accuracy: Heat-treated steel has little or no springback, which makes the shape accuracy higher; although the increase in tensile strength of high-strength steel may increase springback, it is currently possible to better predict and control the springback of cold-formed automotive parts. Communicate with advanced high-strength steel suppliers as early as possible in the design concept process, slightly modify the design plan and adopt appropriate production processes, so that cold forming can be achieved and excellent finished product shape accuracy can be obtained.

3. Optimization of specific properties: To achieve the required ductility level for PHS 2000, SSAB focused on the chemical composition of the steel and its processing system in the steel mill.