Abstract
To lower the annealing temperature and the deviation of the mechanical properties of bake hardening steels, high purity steels were investigated. The steels were characterized by treating at low recrystallization temperature. It was confirmed that the strengthening originated from the solid solution of carbon and the ferrite grain refinement by fine MnS precipitates as carbon and sulfur contents increased in high purity steels. However, it was observed that there was no more increase of strength in steels containing over 40 ppm of carbon. It was considered that the excess carbon formed either the carbon cluster or the low temperature unstable carbides which had the negligible effect on the strengthening because they were reported to be highly coherent with the matrix. The carbon cluster and unstable carbides could be transformed to the stable cementite during bake hardening treatment. MnS was not observed in the high purity steel containing 5 ppm S, resulting in very coarse recrystallized grains and good ductility. As sulfur content increased, the recrystallized grain size decreased due to the formation of the fine MnS precipitates.
