A New and Cost-Effective Process for the Production of Mid- and High-Mn Advanced High Strength
Steel (AHSS)
*S. Ge, S. Mostaghel, V. Hernandez, M. Cramer, J. Davourie and C. Harris
Hatch Ltd.
2800 Speakman Drive
Mississauga, Ontario, L5K 2R7, Canada
(*Corresponding author: sge@hatch.ca)
ABSTRACT
The automotive industry is under a constant pressure to reduce the weight of vehicles in order to reduce emissions and improve fuel efficiency. As such, there is an ever-growing demand for high strength and high ductility steel grades to meet the need for lightweight automotive components. Over the past decade, the production and application of 2nd and 3rd generation Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS) as a lightweight material in automobiles has gained significant popularity due to their exceptional mechanical properties. However, the production cost of these high manganese steel remains high, partially due to the need of large amounts of ferromanganese as alloying material in standard steelmaking processes.
The current study introduces a new and cost-effective technology for the production of medium- and highmanganese steels, where self-fluxed micro-pellets of manganese ore will be used as the source of manganese that can be injected into the steel bath. Prior to injection, these pellets are subjected to a prereduction process using a mixture of H2 and CO gases, where partial metallization of iron and manganese will occur. Direct injection of the pre-reduced micro-pellets provides less volatilization/emission and higher recovery of manganese, and is capable of producing AHSS with 6 – 18 wt% Mn.
KEYWORDS
High-Mn Steel, AHSS, Ore Injection, Pre-reduction, TWIP Steel, Manganese Emission