THE HOT WORKABILITY OF CROMANITE,

A HIGH NITROGEN AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL

JN Tarboton1, LM Matthews1, A Sutcliffe1, CMP Frost1 and JP Wessels1

Columbus Joint Venture - A partnership between Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation
1

Limited, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited and Samancor Limited.
Hendrina Road, Middelburg, Mpumalanga, PO Box 133, Middelburg 1050, South Africa

Keywords: edge cracking, delta ferrite, boron, chromium, Steckel Mill, reheat temperature.

Abstract

Columbus Joint Venture produces a High Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steel, called
CROMANITE (EN 10 088: type 1.3820), containing a nominal 19% chromium, 10% manganese,
0.5% nitrogen and less than 1% nickel. At hot working temperatures, High Nitrogen Austenitic
Stainless Steels are known to have a lower ductility than conventional austenitic stainless steels.
The factors which affect the hot workability of CROMANITE under production conditions have
been studied and the hot working temperature range for this steel has been optimised. From the
literature it is known that high nitrogen steels are prone to edge cracking, if the -ferrite content is
too high. The effect of composition and slab reheat temperature on -ferrite content was
determined and it was found that the -ferrite content varies with the slab reheat temperature. It
was found that in some alloys, the amount of -ferrite increased substantially if the slab was
heated above 1200°C. In one case, the -ferrite increased from 3% at 1100°C to 30% at 1300°C.
In addition to -ferrite content, it was found that chromium had a detrimental effect on hot
ductility, while intermediate amounts of boron were beneficial. With the production of
CROMANITE, the nitrogen solubility, which has a strong affect on the -ferrite content, is
determined principally by the Cr and Mn levels, the liquid metal temperature in the ladle and the
nitrogen partial pressure at the slag-metal interface. From an understanding of these effects, the
composition is selected to ensure that at least the minimum specified nitrogen content is obtained
and that the hot workability of the steel is maximised. Optimisation of the chemistry also takes
into account alloying costs and steelmaking constraints. The above has resulted in successfully hot
rolling CROMANITE in gauges ranging from 50mm down to 3mm on a production scale.

Introduction

CROMANITE, being a high nitrogen austenitic stainless steel, belongs to a class of materials that
have a unique combination of strength, toughness, ductility, work hardenability and corrosion
resistance. This steel performs exceptionally well in materials handling applications, where there
is wet sliding abrasion and high impact abrasion. It is also an excellent candidate material for a
variety of high strength applications, even at elevated temperatures. In addition, CROMANITE is
a weldable stainless steel that can be readily cut, machined and formed.

1
 Fig. 1: Plates Showing Edge Cracking
CROMANITE is produced under atmospheric pressure in 100 tonne heat sizes. This steel is
melted using an Electric Arc Furnace, while decarburisation is carried out in a Creusot Loire
Uddeholm (CLU) converter. A continuous caster is used to produce 200mm thick slabs, ranging in
width from 1000mm to 1500mm. Flat product is rolled from the slab via a Rougher and Steckel
Mill combination. The steel is then annealed and pickled. If desired, cold rolling is done on a
Sendzimir mill, after which the steel is again annealed and pickled. Thus, to date, steel in gauges
from 1 mm to 60 mm, has been successfully produced at the Middelburg plant. Although
substantial quantities of this product have been rolled, some heats have displayed edge cracking
(see Fig. 1) during rolling on the Rougher Mill. The cracks typically start to form when the slab
has been reduced by a total of about 50%.

It has been stated that forging and hot rolling High Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steels is more
difficult than conventional austenitic stainless steels due to the greater deformation resistance
together with a reduction in ductility at hot rolling temperatures [1]. This increase in deformation
resistance was attributed to a lower recrystallisation rate and it was determined that the optimum
reheat temperature was between 1240 and 1280°C. Goikhenberg et al. observed that crack
formation occurred if the finish rolling temperature was below 1000°C. This was attributed to the
precipitation of Cr2N. The highest elongations, during hot tensile testing, were observed in the
1050 to 1150°C temperature range, while the best reductions in area were observed in the 1140 to
1200°C range. Deformation rate was found to significantly increase the ductility but also increased
the deformation resistance. Goikhenberg et al. found that the decrease in ductility at high
temperatures can be attributed to excessive grain growth and void formation (caused by grain
boundary slip).
Dubey et al. [2] found that a 0.45% nitrogen steel showed excellent hot workability. It was found,
however, that if excessive amounts of -ferrite were present at the hot working temperature,
cracking of the ingot during working would occur. On the other hand, a small amount of -ferrite
was found to be beneficial, as the impurities that cause intergranular cracking segregated to this
phase [3].

In the 1960’s the development of Fe-Cr-Mn-N type steels was hindered because of their low hot
workability [4], and the higher loads required during hot working. In the light of these early
problems, research was undertaken to study the hot workability of Fe-Cr-Mn-N steels with
particular emphasis on the -ferrite content and on the effect of Mo, Cu and Ni. A 0.48%N, low -
ferrite content steel could be efficiently deformed without any edge cracking in the 1050 to
1150°C temperature range. Dubey’s [2] conclusions were that austenitic Fe-Cr-Mn-N stainless
steels, with about 0.5% N and low -ferrite levels, exhibit excellent hot workability and lower
rolling loads.

2
Mineura et al. [5] investigated the hot workability of a 20Cr-10Ni-0.7N steel produced in a
pressurised induction furnace. It was found that the hot workability of this type of steel was
reduced if the nitrogen content was increased above about 0.5%, and this was attributed to the
solubility limit of nitrogen and sulphur in austenite. These 20Cr-10Ni steels suffered from nitride
precipitation between 950°C and 1250°C after an ageing time of 1 hour. The lower hot
workability of these steels when compared to AISI 304 stainless steel was attributed to nitride
precipitation and sulphur segregation to the grain boundaries above 1200°C. The hot workability
tests indicated that the optimum temperature range for hot rolling the 20Cr-10Ni-0.7N steel should
be between 1077°C and 1250°C. During hot rolling trials this steel had a finish rolling temperature
of 950°C with no cracking problems. This was because, during rolling, there was insufficient time
at these temperatures for nitride precipitation to occur.

Khorosh et al. [6] showed that the addition of 0.001 to 0.005% B to a 0.03% C, 20% Cr, 16% Ni,
6% Mn, 0.3% N steel, resulted in a considerable improvement in the ductility in the hot shortness
range (800 to 1100°C). The improvement in ductility was ascribed to the reduction in average
grain size and the removal of the coarse grained zone in slabs. Above a boron content of 0.008%,
the steel fractured along the grain boundaries at temperatures above 1100°C. This was attributed
to the formation of a low melting boride eutectic.

The work reported on here is aimed at improving the hot workability of CROMANITE by
composition and process optimisation.

Experimental Procedure

3
The alloys investigated included 40 laboratory produced heats of 5 kg taken from 8 melts of 25 kg
using an Air Induction Furnace. The melt chemistries are shown in Table 1. Melts 1 to 4 were
each split five ways with
C Mn Si Cr Ni B N
varying nitrogen and Melt 1 0.06 8.0 to 10.2 0.4 to 0.3 18.8 to 18.3 0.8 0.003 0.37 to 0.52
manganese contents. This Melt 2 0.06 8.0 to 10.5 0.5 to 0.4 21.6 to 21.1 0.9 0.002 0.38 to 0.59

was achieved through Melt 4 0.06 9.4 to 11.4 0.5 to 0.4 18.5 to 18.0 0.9 to 0.8 0.003 0.39
Melt 3 0.06 9.9 to 11.7 0.5 to 0.4 22.0 to 21.4 0.9 to 0.8 0.003 to 0.50
0.34 to 0.62
successive additions of Melt 5 0.06 10 0.5 20.4 0.2 to 1.2 0.003 0.59
Melt 6 0.05 10.2 0.3 to 1.0 20.7 0.8 0.003 0.45
nitrided electrolytic Melt 7 0.05 to 0.13 9.7 0.4 20.2 0.9 0.003 0.47
manganese. Similarly, the Melt 8 0.03 18.8 0.2 20.4 0.9 0.001 to 0.10 0.52
nickel was split in melt 5, Table 1: The Laboratory Split Heats
the silicon in melt 6, the
carbon in melt 7 and the boron in melt 8. The ingots were then reheated at 1250°C for two and a
half hours and rolled from 50mm down to 8 mm at 20% reduction per pass, without reheating
between passes. The average, minimum and maximum temperature per pass for the 40 ingots is
given in Fig. 2. As can be
1200
seen, the rolling was very
consistent with virtually all 1150 Minimum
Average
the deformation occurring Maximum
1100
between 1150 and 900°C. Of
Temperature (°C)

the 40 plates, 16 showed no 1050

edge cracking, 10 plates had 1000

some cracking, while the
remaining 14 plates showed 950

severe edge cracking. 900

Samples were also obtained
from all the production heats 850
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
made at Columbus Stainless. Pass Number
These samples, together with
samples from all the Fig. 2: Laboratory Rolling Temperatures
laboratory produced plates,
were annealed at 1250°C (the reheat temperature) and water quenched. The ferrite content of the
steel in this condition was then measured using both a Ferritscope and by image analysis of the
etched metallographic specimens.

4
Results and Discussion

To quantify the extent of edge cracking, a cracking severity index (CSI) was defined as in Eq. 1.
This formula aimed at quantifying a particular plate’s cracking severity, relative to the other 40
plates.

100 cracks / m min length max length mean length

CSI = 4 X (( avg cracks / m )  ( avg min length )  ( avg max length )  ( avg mean length )) Eq. 1

cracks/m the number of cracks per metre occurring on the edge of a plate.
avg cracks/m the average number of cracks per metre occurring on the edge of a plate for
all 40 plates
min length the minimum crack length found on a particular plate.
avg min length the average of the minimum crack length found on all 40 plates.
max length the maximum crack length found on a particular plate.
avg max length the average of the maximum crack length found on all 40 plates.
mean length the mean crack length found on a particular plate.
avg mean length the average of the mean crack length found on all 40 plates.

Using this formula, the 55

steels were grouped to 50

No Cracking
enable trends to be revealed. 45
Slight Cracking
A CSI value of 0 is crack 40 Heavy Cracking
% Delta Ferrite

35
free, a CSI value of up to
30
150 was defined as slight
25
cracking, while a value 20
above 150 was defined as 15
heavy cracking. Fig. 3 10
shows the effect of 5
chromium and -ferrite 0
contents on edge cracking. 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 19.5 20.0 20.5 21.0 21.5 22.0
% Chromium
Above 15% -ferrite, edge
cracking occurred, Fig. 3: The Effect of delta ferrite and Cr on Cracking
regardless of the chromium content of the plate. The solid line shows that at high chromium
contents, even less -ferrite 20
can be tolerated. For
0.0086%Mn 2+30%C+18%N+0.44%Cu

0% Ferrite
example, at a chromium 18
<10% Ferrite
level of 21%, the maximum
Nieq=%Ni+0.12%Mn-

>10% Ferrite
16
allowable -ferrite, before
cracking occurred, was 5%. 14

12

10

8
18 19 20 21 22 23
Creq=%Cr+1.5%Mo+0.5%Si+2.3%V+2.5%Al

Fig. 4: Microstructure Prediction [7]

5
Various modified Schaeffler Diagrams for High Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steels have been
proposed. One such example, proposed by Rechsteiner [7], is shown in Fig. 4. The points plotted
are for the compositions investigated in this paper. Using this approach, it is possible to predict,
with a fair degree of accuracy, whether an alloy will be austenitic or duplex. However, the
60

50

Predicted % Ferrite
40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Measured % Ferrite

Fig. 5: The Delta Ferrite Equation (Eq. 2)

diagram is not accurate enough to be able to predict actual -ferrite contents. It was thus
imperative to derive a reliable formula to predict the -ferrite present at 1250°C (the reheat
temperature used for the laboratory ingots). It would then be possible to optimise the composition
to maximise the hot workability, without affecting other variables, for example the solubility of
nitrogen in the liquid steel. Backwards Stepwise Regression was used to derive an equation (Eq. 2)
for -ferrite based on composition. First and second order coefficients were obtained. The adjusted
r2 was 0.86 and the mean absolute error was 2.9%. The predictive ability of this equation is shown
in Fig. 5, with the ±MAE also shown.
180

160

140
Crack Severity Index

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0.0000 0.0010 0.0020 0.0030 0.0040 0.0050 0.0060 0.0070 0.0080 0.0090 0.0100
% Boron

Fig. 6: The Effect of Boron on Cracking

-ferrite at 1250°C = 31.24 - 262.6C + 1.535Mn + 63.72Si - 56.71Si 2

+ 0.2192Cr2 - 24.63Ni + 4.365Ni2 - 308.7N + 186.0N2 Eq. 2

To investigate the effect of boron on crack susceptibility, a series of five ingots with the same base
composition but with varying boron levels was made (Fig. 6). The alloy contained 21% chromium
and had about 9% -ferrite at 1250°C. From Fig. 3, it would be expected that this alloy would
crack and indeed this was the case. However, as the boron level was increased to above 0.0040%

6
 20
1.95Creq/Nieq
18
16
14
12

% Ferrite
10
1.85Creq/Nieq
8

6
4
1.65Creq/Nieq
2
0
1100 1150 1200 1250 1300
Reheat Temperature (°C)

Fig. 7: The Effect of Reheat Temperature

the steel became resistant to edge cracking. At higher levels of boron, cracking was again seen to
be in evidence. This is due to the formation of a low melting point boride eutectic [6], leading to
grain boundary liquation during hot rolling. Based on these results, a boron aim of 0.0045% was
selected as being optimal (Fig. 6).

Fig. 8: Plates Showing No Edge Cracking

A more crack resistant CROMANITE composition was then chosen. However, a further aspect
that needed clarification was the possibility that large amounts of -ferrite would transform from
the austenite at higher slab reheat temperatures. Quantifying this was done by measuring the
ferrite content after heating samples to temperatures between 1100 and 1300°C for a time of one
hour at temperature. The results of three different heats are presented in Fig. 7. The chromium and
nickel equivalents developed by Rechsteiner et al were used [7]. From this diagram it can be seen
that heats which have low and similar amounts of ferrite at annealing temperatures (1100°C) can
have vastly different amounts of ferrite at slab reheat temperatures (1200 to 1300°C). It is difficult
to predict this behaviour exactly, although the higher the Cr eq/Nieq ratio, the more likely that large
amounts of ferrite will transform from the austenite at high temperatures. This shows the
importance of ensuring that the reheat temperature is kept below 1250°C.

From the above results, the chemistry was further optimised. The Cr was kept below 19% (Fig 3.),
a boron content of 0.0045% was used (Fig. 6) and the rest of the chemistry was balanced to ensure
a -ferrite content of less than 6%. A reheat temperature of 1220°C was selected to minimise the
amount of ferrite present during hot rolling (Fig. 7). Fig. 8 is a photograph of plates produced
according to the above criteria and successfully rolled with no evidence of edge cracking.

7
Conclusions

In order to increase the hot workability of High Nitrogen Austenitic Stainless Steels with
compositions similar to that of CROMANITE:

1. The chromium should be minimised to the minimum required for nitrogen solubility and
corrosion resistance considerations.

1. The -ferrite should be minimised and kept below 6%.

1. Boron additions should be made to ensure 0.0045% boron in the final product.

1. The reheat temperature should be minimised and kept below 1250°C.

8
References

[1] Yu. N. Goikhenberg, D.A. Mirzaev, L.G. Zhuravlev, V.A. Mirmel’shtein, and T.G.
Lobanova: Investigation of hot ductility of high nitrogen austenitic chromium-manganese
steels; Steel in the USSR, Vol. 21, October 1991, pp 477 to 479.

[2] R.K. Dubey, S.P. Chakraborty and S.K. Choudhuri, C.A.N. Rao, P.K. De and A.N. Sinha:
Development of processing parameters for mechanical working of Fe-Cr-Mn-N austenitic
stainless steel; Concurrent Engineering Approach to Materials Processing, The Minerals
Metals and Materials Society, 1992, pp 267 to 277.

[3] F.B. Pickering: High Nitrogen Steel, Institute of Metals, 1989, pp 10 to 31.

[4] B.R. Nijhawan et al, JISI, March 1967, p 92

[5] K. Mineura and K. Tanaka: Effect of calcium treatment on hot workability of Cr-Ni-0,7N
stainless steel; Materials Science and Technology, August 1990, Vol. 6, pp 743 to 748

[6] A. Khorosh, S.I. Bulat, M.A. Mukhina, N.A. Sorokina and K.A. Yushchenko: Hot rolling of
chromium-nickel-manganese stainless steel containing boron, Steel in the USSR, December
1976, pp 677 to 678.

[7] A. Rechsteiner and M.O. Speidel: New methods for the production of high nitrogen steels,
Innovation Stainless Steel, October 1993, pp 2.107 to 2.112

Correspondence

John Tarboton
E-mail: tarboton.john@columbus.co.za
Fax: +27 13 247 2289