Advanced High
Strength Steels (AHSS) are designed to provide an efficient answer to the actual
demands from the automotive industry, with more and more strict safety
regulations, constant weight reduction demands, CO2 emission
restrictions and good forming properties, all of them within a reasonable cost.
They are complex and sophisticated materials with a carefully selected chemical
composition and multiphase structures as a result of precise and controlled heating
and cooling processes. The hardening mechanisms involved for reaching the range
of properties such as strength, ductility, fracture toughness and fatigue are
extraordinarily diverse.