Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Wear Resistance Characteristics of XCr13 during Advanced High-Strength Steel Stamping

Owing to the high strength and hardness of advanced high-strength steels (AHSS), the die materials for AHSS sheet stamping must have superior mechanical properties. A novel carburization technology on high-chromium, low-carbon, low-cost stainless steel XCr13 was used to achieve a hardness of approximately 60 HRC, with a carburized layer of approximately 0.5 mm; these specifications meet the requirements of AHSS sheet stamping. To evaluate the wear characteristics of the treated XCr13, regular pin-on-disk wear tests were performed under dry sliding conditions at room temperature. JIS SKD11, a popular cold work die material, was also tested and compared with XCr13. A numerical simulation model for AHSS sheet flanging with a W-shaped specimen was set up in ABAQUS, and the user subroutine UMESHMOTION was used to evaluate the wear resistance of the two die materials, including the wear surface profile, wear depth, and wear severity index value. For JIS SKD11, the agreement between the simulation and experiment results was good, which verifies the reliability and accuracy of the proposed wear simulation model and method. It was found that the wear resistance of carburized XCr13 was at the same level as that of JIS SKD11 because of the carburized zone. Further, carburized XCr13 can work well as a die material for AHSS stamping.