Press Solutions for Forming HSLA Steel Material Changeover Requires Some Overall Changes

"If the operator uses the same die process for HSLA steel as he or she used for conventional-strength steel, the press die height must be brought down to further crush-form, or coin, the part in an effort to eliminate the additional springback of the harder material."

Over the last several years a trend in automotive design has been more use of high-strength, low-alloy (HSLA) steel in key structural components of the chassis, internal doors, and seating. The goal has been simply to reduce the components' weight by reducing material thickness without affecting the structural strength of the part.