A. Kisko

Studies on Martensite Transformation in a Metastable Austenitic Cr-Mn Stainless Steel

The influences of the heating rate and annealing duration on martensite formation and its reversion to austenite have been investigated in a 60% cold-rolled metastable high-manganese austenitic Type 204Cu stainless steel. A Gleeble 3800 thermomechanical simulator was used for dilatometric measurements. Cold-rolled steel pieces were either heated up to 1000 °C at various heating rates between 5 °C/s and 150 °C/s followed by quenching to room temperature, or heated and held at temperatures in the range of 450 620 °C for different durations between 0.1 600 s. In heating experiments, dilatation curves revealed an expansion of a specimen starting around 550 °C followed by contraction, both processes depending on the heating rate. These dimensional changes could be correlated to the formation and reversion of a ferromagnetic phase, α-martensite. Some martensite was also formed during isothermal holding in connection with tempering of the pre-existing α-martensite before the following reversion, as established by magnetic measurements. Tempering of martensite was revealed by microhardness behaviour, X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy.

Simulation of Line Annealing of Type 430 Ferritic Stainless Steel

The annealing behavior of cold rolled Type 430 ferritic stainless steel is the subject of this paper. The steel was cold rolled 79%, then heated at 6 °C/s to the soaking temperature of 841 °C, which is just below the Ae1 temperature. During heating, specimens were quenched from selected temperatures between 650 and 841 °C and after various times at 841 °C. These quenched samples underwent metallographic examination and micro-hardness determination. The results indicated that under the prevailing experimental conditions, the hardness appeared to correlate strongly with the extent of recrystallization. The kinetics of recrystallization appeared to originate in the cold worked state, where three kinds of grain were found: (i) smooth elongated, featureless of α-fiber orientation {001}<100>; (ii) irregular fishbone grains of the γ-fiber orientations {111}<112> plus {111}<110>; and (iii) twisted grains of the η-fiber orientation {001}<100>. It was found that the twisted grains of the η-fiber were the first to recrystallize, with the fishbone grains of the γ-fiber second, and the smooth elongated, featureless grains of the α-fiber last. It was found that the grains of the α-fiber orientation {001}<100> and the η-fiber orientation {001}<100> were replaced with grains of the γ-fiber orientations as recrystallization progressed. These results are discussed in terms of recrystallization and texture development.