• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.115-120
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• 2012

It has been known that the ferritic stainless steel can be changed to martensitic stainless steel when nitrogen is added. However the high hardness of martensitic stainless steel prevents the plastic deformation. In this study, instead of martensite, the surface microstructure was changed into nitrogen pearlite to increase the plastic deformation easily by isothermal heat treatment after high temperature gas nitriding (HTGN) the AISI 430 ferritic stainless steel. The isothermal treatment was carried out at $780^{\circ}C$ for 4, 6, and 10 hrs, respectively, after HTGN treatment at $1100^{\circ}C$ for 10 hrs. The surface layer of isothermal-treated steel appeared nitrogen pearlite composed with fine chromium nitride and ferrite. Hence, the interior region that was not affected by nitrogen permeation exhibited ferrite phase. When quenching the isothermal treated steel at 1100oC, martensitic phase formed at the surface layer. The hardness of surface layer of isothermal-treated steel and quenched steel measured the value of 150~240 Hv and 630 Hv, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2014

This study is to investigate the phase changes and cold workability after isothermal transformation at $780^{\circ}C$ by using the high temperature gas nitrided (HTGN) STS 430 ferritic stainless steel specimens. The phase diagram of STS 430 steel obtained by calculation showed that the phase appeared at $1100^{\circ}C$ showed as ${\alpha}+{\gamma}{\rightarrow}{\gamma}{\rightarrow}{\gamma}+Cr_2N{\rightarrow}{\gamma}+Cr_2N+CrN$ with increasing nitrogen concentration. Also, the transformation of ${\gamma}{\rightarrow}Cr_2N$ during heat treatment isothermally at $780^{\circ}C$, nitrogen pearlite with lamellar type was fully formed at the nitrogen permated surface layer for 10 hrs. However, this transformation was not completed for 1 hr, resulting nitrogen pearlite plus martensite. The cold rolled specimen of isothermally transformed at $780^{\circ}C$ for 10 hrs after high temperature gas nitriding decreased the layer thickness of nitrogen pearlite inducing the deformation of hard $Cr_2N$ phase. the dissolution rate of $Cr_2N$ phase increased rapidly with increasing cold rolling ratio. Specimens with the microstructure of nitrogen pearlite (isothermally transformed at $780^{\circ}C$ for 10 hrs) were possible to cold rolling without crack formation. However, the mixed structures of nitrogen pearlite + martensite (isothermally transformed at $780^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr) were impossible to cold deformation without cracking.