Abstract
A steel with chemical composition, 0.22% C, 0.25% Si, 1.26% Mn, 0.22% Cr, 0.04% Ti, 0.0042% B, and a microstructure of ferrite and spheroidized cementite has been press-formed to automotive center pillar followed by local-hardening heat-treatment. Hardness, tensile properties, fractography, microstructure and surface roughness of local-hardening heat-treated automotive center pillar have been examined. The directly heated and quenched area had fully martensitic structure with Vickers hardenss in the range of 500 to 510. The heat affected area close to the directly heated area showed dual-phase structure of ferrite and martensite. The width of the heat-treated and heat-affected areas after the local-hardening heat treatment was ranging from 32 mm to 50 mm. The surface of the local-hardening heat-treated center pillar revealed some temper color as a consequence of the oxidation during the heat treatment, but the surface roughness was not affected by the local-hardening heat treatment.
