Application of Laser Surface Remelting in Grain Boundary Engineering

To improve intergranular corrosion resistance of 304 stainless steel, a novel method, laser surface remelting combined with annealing treatment was adopted, which resulted in a high population of low  CSL boundaries, especially, twin boundaries (3) on the surface of the processed specimens. The grain boundary character distribution and effect of laser processing parameters on it were investigated. The experimental results showed that the maximum frequency of the low  CSL boundaries could attain 88.6% under the optimal processing conditions. The high fraction of the low  CSL boundaries led to a high corrosion resistance to intergranular corrosion.