Microstructure Refinement of a Low Interstitial Ferritic Stainless Steel by Cold Rolling and Annealing of Martensite

Several studies have shown that recrystallization of cold rolled martensite results in low carbon steels with very fine microstructures. Correspondingly, these materials exhibit promising combinations of strength and elongation. Most of the work on this processing route has focused on low carbon steels (0.1-0.2wt% carbon) where the interstitial content may play an important role in the microstructure refinement. In this note we describe experiments performed on a low interstitial stainless steel containing 0.02wt%C. It has been possible to achieve materials with high strengths (UTS > 1 GPa) and significant uniform elongation (> 8%), however, the microstructures associated with these properties are very different from those previously reported for low carbon steels.