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.