The Effect of Ni Interlayer on the Hot-Rolled and Quenched Stainless Steel Clad Plate

The vacuum hot-rolled SUS314/Q235 stainless steel clad plate has many drawbacks including serious interface alloy element diffusion, stainless steel cladding’s sensitization, and carbon steel substrate’s low strength. In this study, the comprehensive properties were systematically adjusted by changing the thickness of the Ni interlayer (0, 100, 200 μm) and the quenching temperature (1000~1150 °C). The results showed that the Ni interlayer can obviously hinder the diffusion of carbon element, so as to achieve the purpose of eliminating the decarburized layer and reducing the carbon content of the carburized layer. Meanwhile, the perfect metallurgical bonding between the substrate and cladding can be obtained, effectively improving the stainless steel clad plate’s tensile shear strength and comprehensive mechanical properties, and significantly reduce the brittleness of the carburized layer. As the quenching temperature increases, the grains coarsening of carbon steel and stainless steel became more and more serious, and the sensitization phenomenon and the thickness of the carburized layer are gradually decreased. The stainless steel clad plate (Ni layer thickness of 100 μm) quenched at 1050 °C had the best comprehensive mechanical properties. Herein, the interface shear strength, tensile strength and the fracture elongation reached 360.5 MPa, 867 MPa and 16.10%, respectively, achieving strengthening and toughening aim. This is attributed to the disappearance of the sensitization phenomenon, the grain refinement and the lower interface residual stress.