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Stainless Steel Manufacturing
Stainless Steel Manufacturing
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Manufacturing
of Stainless
Steel
D
C
B
A
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A rule of the thumb states that CC occurs at a temperature 20-25 C below the critical pitting temperature (CPT). To cope with this, crevices should be completely avoided below the water line (=
intensied control), or a better steel with a higher PREN should be chosen. Thereby, a larger safety
margin is induced allowing a few more defects (Stainless Steel and Corrosion, Table 6.1).
Heating the steel to a temperature in between 500 and 850 C, an inevitable phenomenon close to the
welding zone, implies a risk of formation of harmful chromium carbides. This does not happen in the
weld itself, but rather in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), close by. Normally, this problem is greatest
when welding thick steel plates, and in practice, one can cope with it by choosing low-carbon steel
(4306, 4307 or 4404), or titanium stabilized steel (4541 or 4571).
A related phenomenon is the formation of harmful intermetallic phases such as the sigma (Cr-Fe)
or the ksi phase (Cr-Mo). This problem is particularly big when welding high-alloyed super duplex
steels (i.e. 4410, duplex 2507), high-alloyed austenites (i.e. 4547) and the high-end ferritic steel types
(i.e. 4509, 4526 and 4521).
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Cutting, Sawing and Others (Stainless Steel and Corrosion, Chapter 10.2)
Due to the risk of heat tinting, the most dangerous methods are the hot ones. A hot classic is the
angular cutter, which, apart from producing a rough and uneven surface, gives rise to a spray of hot
particles. These have a nasty tendency to stick to stainless steel surfaces, and the result is heat tinted
crevices, a very sad combination implying a severe loss of corrosion resistance. The easy way to cope
with the problem is to remove the spray particles carefully with i.e. a chisel or a screw driver, if necessary grind carefully and nish off with a pickling.
Angle cutters are a classic when it comes to deliver spatter. Instead of a neat, free surface (left), one
gets a heat-tinted crevice with a markedly reduced corrosion resistance (right). All spatters from welding
or angle cutters must be removed mechanically followed by a proper pickling.
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Manufacturing
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Steel
Brushing, Blasting, Grinding etc. (Stainless Steel and Corrosion, Chapter 11.1)
Any mechanical treatment of stainless steel affects the surface roughness and thereby the corrosion
resistance of the steel. As a general rule, the corrosion resistance decreases with increasing surface
roughness, and a very rough surface (say, sandblasted) performs markedly worse in a corrosion testing
than the normal, smooth 2b.
Corrosion testing in which various 4301 specimens have been tried. The corrosion
resistance is measured as pitting potential depending upon the mechanical surface
treatment, and, as can be seen, the rougher the surface, the worse the corrosion
resistance. The blue columns show the result after pickling.
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Two stainless sheets of the grade EN 1.4301 (AISI 304). The one to the left has been sand-blasted while the one to the right
has been electro-polished. It requires little imagination to see that the left one must be much better in collecting corrosive
salts. The white line on both photographs is 50 m.
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Manufacturing
of Stainless
Steel
All references are with regards to Stainless Steel and Corrosion (Claus Qvist Jessen, Damstahl a/s,
October 2011). The book can be ordered through www.damstahl.dk.
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