A strong and ductile ferrite-based lightweight steel manufactured via high-temperature warm rolling process

A trade-off between strength and ductility is unavoidable in ferrite-based lightweight steels due to the presence of 8-ferrite, and improving the properties of such steels requires precise control of the retained austenite and the complete mobilization of multiple strengthening mechanisms. In this study, we obtain a ferrite-based lightweight steel with the chemical composition Fe-0.3C-2.8Mn-3.5Al-0.5Cr-0.2V by adopting a higher temperature warm rolling process, endowing the best comprehensive properties. The results demonstrate that multi-scale heterogeneous microstructures are built without additional recrystallization annealing under the higher temperature (>700 degrees C) warm rolling process. Meanwhile, a large amount of retained austenite, higher dislocation density and strain-induced vanadium carbide precipitation were obtained through the warm rolling process. As warm rolling refines austenite grains, Mn and Cr are further diffused and enriched, enhancing the chemical stability of the retained austenite. After low-temperature tempering, this warm-rolled steel shows excellent comprehensive properties, including a tensile strength of 1140 MPa and elongation of 30%. The enhanced strength-ductility is attributed to the higher stability of retained austenite, stable maintenance of dislocation density and the pinning effect of precipitation relative to dislocation lines. Furthermore, a stronger discontinuous yielding behavior of the warm-rolled and tempered steel was obtained, enhancing the overall strain.