The automotive industry requirements for vehicle weight reduction, weight containment, improved part functionality and passenger safety have resulted in the increased use of steel grades with a fully martensitic microstructure. These steel grades are essential to improve the anti-intrusion resistance of automotive body parts and the related passenger safety during car collisions. Standard advanced high strength steel (AHSS) grades are notoriously difficult to be formed by cold stamping; they are characterized by elastic springback, poor stretch flangeability and low hole expansion ratios. Hot stamping has therefore received much attention recently as an alternative technology to produce AHSS automotive parts.In this book, selected articles from the Fourth International Conference on Advanced High Strength Steel and Press Hardening held on August 20-22th, 2018 in Hefei, China, are compiled. It focuses on AHSS for the development of press hardening of high performance sheet metal for lightweight vehicle, advanced digital manufacturing technology, as well as the physical metallurgy principles of the hot stamping process.Aiming at the process design and industrial application for hot stamping of press hardened steel and high strength aluminium alloy sheet, the effect of temperature and strain rate on the formability and mechanical properties of the products is discussed. In addition, more practical cases are provided concerning accurate modelling and multi-physics coupling simulation of the hot stamping process. Furthermore, the influence of tool design on forming process, more precise process control strategies to increase production efficiency, and the improvement of hot stamping equipment by advanced design methods will also be presented.

This proceedings brings together one hundred and ten selected papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Advanced High Strength Steel and Press Hardening (ICHSU2015), which was held in Changsha, China, during October 15-18, 2015.To satisfy the increasingly urgent requirement of reducing the weight of vehicle structures and increasing passenger safety, ICHSU2015 provided an excellent international platform for researchers to share their knowledge and results in theory, methodology and applications of advanced high strength steel and press hardening technology.This conference aroused great interests and attentions from domestic and foreign researchers in hot stamping field. Experts in this field from Australia, China, Germany and Sweden, contributed to the collection of research results and developments. The papers cover almost all the current topics of advanced high strength steel and press hardening technology.

This proceedings brings together seventy seven selected papers presented at the 3rd International Conference on Advanced High Strength Steel and Press Hardening (ICHSU2016), which was held in XiaEURO (TM)an, China, during August 25-27, 2016.In this rapid growing market in advanced high strength steel and press hardening, in particularly demand from automotive industry and sustainability community to develop light-weight materials for Body in white or BIW, has motivated us to organize ICHSU2016, soon after the successful conclusion of our ICHSU2015 last year to encourage experts all over the world to get together again to exchange note and ideas as how to move the R&D in press hardening technology forward in the new era.The purpose of holding ICHSU2016 is to satisfy the increasingly urgent requirement of reducing the weight of vehicle structures and increasing passenger safety. This conference arouses great interests and attentions from domestic and foreign researchers in hot stamping field, of the articles accepted, covering almost all the current topics of advanced high strength steel and press hardening technology, which includes materials & testing, modeling & simulation, process design, tribology & tools, equipment and product properties.