EFFECT OF ULTRAFAST HEATING ON AISI 441 FERRITIC STAINLESS STEEL

Abstract

The use of the ultrafast heating (UFH) heat treatment process attracted great attention in the last few years, following the requirements of CO2 emissions reduction. The effect of ultrafast heating (UFH) treatment an AISI 441 ferritic stainless steels is reported in this paper. Results show that a minimum temperature of 975 °C is required in order to achieve a fully recrystallized microstructure. The study highlights the effect of ultrarapid annealing on grain size evolution as a function of different adopted process parameters. The obtained microstructure is related to mechanical properties in terms of ultimate tensile stress and hardness.