Effect of Post-Weld Heat Treatment on Hardness in Superduplex Stainless Steel ASTM A890/A890M - Grade 6A

Superduplex stainless steel alloy exhibit high mechanical and corrosion resistance, which main industrial application is in the petrochemical industry. The manufacture and maintenance of such equipment usually involve welding processes, followed by post-welded heat treatment and it often becomes impossible to apply heat treatments. Thereby, the purpose of this work is to verify the effect of a post-welded heat treatment on shielded metal arc welding in steel grade ASTM A890/A890M - grade 6A. The microstructure in the as-welded condition consisted of austenite, secondary austenite, and ferrite phases and, the post-welded heat treatment condition exhibited only austenite and ferrite. The hardness in the melt zone reached values of 300 HV after welding and, the value was reduced to 260 HV in the post-welded heat treatment condition.

Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructure of Duplex Stainless Steel Welds

Duplex stainless steels (DSS) are gaining in popularity due to their characteristic features, excellent mechanical properties, and corrosion resistance. The microstructure of DSSs consists of ferrite up to 50 %, and the rest is built up from austenite. The ferritic microstructure can cause chromium-nitride precipitation because the nitrogen solubility in the ferrite phase is very low below 700 °C. Our research showed that electrochemical etching is an acceptable process for revealing chromium-nitrides. Additionally, our research points out that chromium-nitride acts as a secondary austenite nucleation site.

Formation of Chromium Nitride and Intragranular Austenite in a Super Duplex Stainless Steel

Precipitation of chromium nitrides and formation of intragranular austenite were studied in detail for the super duplex stainless steel grade 2507 (UNS S32750). The situation of multipass welding was simulated by heat treatment at 1623 K (1350 °C) and quenching followed by short heat treatments at 1173 K (900 °C). The microstructural evolution was characterized using transmission and scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter, and transmission Kikuchi diffraction, and it was observed that the interior of the ferrite grains contained chromium nitrides after quenching. The nitrides were predominantly of CrN with a cubic halite-type structure and clusters of CrN-Cr2N where rod-shaped trigonal Cr2N particles had nucleated on plates of CrN. After heat treatment for 10 seconds at 1173 K (900 °C), the nitride morphology was transformed into predominantly rod-shaped Cr2N, and finely dispersed intragranular secondary austenite idiomorphs had formed in the nitride-containing areas within the ferrite grains. After 60 seconds of heat treatment, both the Cr2N nitrides and the secondary austenite were coarsened. Analysis of electron diffraction data revealed an inherited crystallographic relationship between the metastable CrN and the intragranular austenite. The mechanism of chromium nitride formation and its relation to secondary austenite formation in duplex stainless steels are discussed.

A New Approach to the Study of Multi-Pass Welds–Microstructure and Properties of Welded 20-mm-Thick Superduplex Stainless Steel

Type 2507 superduplex stainless steel 20 mm in thickness was multi-pass-welded with Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) and Flux-Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) processes. Recommended and higher arc energies and inter-pass temperatures were used. Thermal cycles were monitored using a recently developed procedure involving the successive instrumentation of the multi-pass welds, pass by pass, by addition of thermocouples in each weld pass. The repeatability of temperature measurements and survival rate of more than 90% of thermocouples confirmed the reliability of the procedure. Reheating by subsequent passes caused a progressive increase in the austenite content of the weld metal. The as-deposited GMAW passes with higher-than-recommended arc energy showed the lowest presence of nitrides. Therefore, the cooling rate—and not the time exposed at the critical temperature range—seems to be the key factor for nitride formation. The welding sequence layout also plays an important role in the distribution of secondary phases. A larger amount and concentration of secondary austenite and σ-phase was found for a larger number of subsequent passes in the immediate vicinity of a specific weld pass. The impact toughness exceeded requirements for all welds. Differences in absorbed energies were related to the amount of micro-inclusions found with the FCAW weld showing the lowest absorbed energies and highest amount of micro-inclusions. Pitting corrosion preferentially initiated in locations with secondary austenite and σ-phase. However, in the absence of these secondary phases, the HAZ containing nitrides was the weakest location where pitting initiated. The results of this work have implications on practical welding for superduplex stainless steels: the current recommendations on maximum arc energy should be revised for large thickness weldments, and the importance of the welding sequence layout on the formation of secondary phases should be considered.

Effects of TIG Reheating on Duplex Stainless Steel Weld Microstructure

Duplex stainless steels (DSS) gaining their excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance due to their austenitic-ferritic microstructure, ideally in the same amount. However, to keep this ideal phase ratio during arc welding is very difficult. Generally, the arc welding processes will result in more ferritic microstructure in the weld metal and in the heat affected zone, due to the rapid cooling. The ferritic microstructure can cause chromiumnitride precipitation, because the nitrogen solubility in ferrite phase is very low below 700 °C. These chromiumnitride precipitations can cause loss of corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. However, during subsequent reheating, the chromium-nitrides can dissolve and act as a secondary austenite nucleation site in the ferritic microstructure. In our research we welded DSS specimen autogenously, with tungsten inert gas welding using pure argon and 94 % argon + 6 % nitrogen as shielding gasses. In the first case the sub-sequent solid-state reheating caused 20 % increase in the austenite fraction of the weld metal but with the use of mixed shielding gas only 5 % increase.

Effect of annealing temperature on the microstructure of hyperduplex stainless steels

Samples of hyperduplex stainless steels were produced experimentally and exposed to different conventional annealing heat treatments in order to obtain the microstructural balance of 50% ferrite and 50% austenite. To differentiate the ferrite and austenite from any secondary phase, selective etching was used and quantitative metallography was performed to measure the percentage of phases. Results showed that conventional annealing heat treatments promote the transformation from ferrite to sigma phase and secondary austenite, suggesting a higher occurrence of sigma phase in the experimental hyperduplex alloys compared to other duplex alloys due to the superior content of chromium and molybdenum. On the other hand, a balanced microstructure free of secondary phases was accomplished increasing the temperature of the annealing heat treatment, which allowed the transformation of ferrite into austenite during cooling.

Surface Layer Properties of Low-Alloy High-Speed Steel after Grinding

Investigations of the surface layer characteristics of selected kinds of low-alloy high-speed steel after grinding were carried out. They were carried out on the flat-surface grinder with a 95A24K grinding wheel without cooling. The influence of grinding parameters was defined especially for: the quantity of secondary austenite, surface roughness, microhardness and grinding efficiency with a large range of grinding parameters: grinding depth 0.005–0.035 mm, lengthwise feed 2–6 m/min, without a cross-feed on the whole width of the sample. It was found that improvement of grinding properties of low-alloy high-speed steels is possible by efficient selection of their chemical composition. The value of the grinding efficiency is conditioned by grinding forces, whose value has an impact on the grinding temperature. To ensure high quality of the tool surface layer (i.e. a smaller amount of secondary austenite, lack of wheel burn and micro-cracks) in the case of sharpening of tools made of low-alloy high-speed steel, the grinding temperature should be as low as possible.

Constitutive Equation Development to Model the Hot Forging of ZERON®100 Super Duplex Stainless Steel and Associated Microstructural Evolution

A constitutive equation of flow stress based on the Norton-Hoff equation has been developed for the high chromium and nitrogen containing super duplex stainless steel, ZERON® 100 (UNS S32760). This was then used to model, using the finite element method, the strain distribution within a uniaxial compression test under typical two-phase forging conditions. Predictions from the model were used to correlate deformation history to microstructure morphology. The microstructure consisted of austenite, γ islands (both primary and secondary) within a ferrite, δ matrix that contained chromium nitride precipitates. For deformation temperatures of 1050°C and 1120°C, the small secondary austenite was equiaxed, whilst at 1280°C the secondary austenite exhibited a Widmanstätten morphology. The highest level of nitride precipitation occurred at the highest deformation temperatures, i.e. highest volume fraction of ferrite, independent of strain rate. This suggests that nitride precipitation appears to be driven to a greater extent by thermal factors than deformation substructure.