Hardness mapping of a DP980 steel sample

In this application note, Bruker Nano utilizes hardness mapping to characterize the two phases of a dual-phase (DP) steel sample. Advanced DP steels are important new high-strength steel products being developed for the automotive industry. Their microstructure typically consists of a soft ferrite phase with dispersed grains of a hard, substantially stronger, martensite phase. While conventional DP steels exhibit a low-yield strength phase combined with a high-strength phase, new advanced DP steels use solid-solution hardening in the ferrite phase to increase the yield strength. These enhanced properties make DP steels suitable for automotive structural and safety parts, such as longitudinal beams, cross members, and reinforcements.