LAUSR

Abstract To widen the application of the fine-blanking process, the heat-assisted fine-blanking process for 304 stainless steel plate has been conducted. The quality of the sheared surface and the hardness distribution of the deformed part were studied to determine the influence of the forming condition on forming results and the performance of the deformed part. Furthermore, electron backscatter diffraction and X-ray diffraction analyses were conducted to study the microstructure evolution and phase transformation of the deformed part for determining their forming mechanism and underlying reasons for their hardness distribution. The quality of the sheared surface improved with an increase in the forming temperature. When the temperature was increased to 250 °C, a sheared surface with a full burnish zone was obtained for a linear segment. Moreover, the forming temperature not only affected the hardness value of the deformed part, which reduced with an increase in the forming temperature, but also affected the hardness distribution. The experimental results indicated that the “hardness-affected zone” decreased in size with an increase in the forming temperature. Through microstructure and dislocation density analysis, changes in the quality of the sheared surface and hardness of the heat-assisted fine-blanked 304 stainless steel part could be attributed to the variation in the martensite content and dislocation density of deformed part, both of which decreased with increasing forming temperature.