Transformation behavior in low carbon 13% chromium-3% copper stainless steel

Martensitic transformation and γ → α transformation behavior were investigated in low carbon 13% chromium stainless steels containing 2% nickel or 3% copper. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Hardness of 2% nickel added low carbon 13% chromium steel was independent of cooling rate after hot working at large reduction. Structure of the steel was martensitic even after being subjected to such large reduction of 75%. This result suggests that ferritic transformation was hard to occur under an usual cooling rate because austenite phase was sufficiently stabilized by the addition of chromium and nickel. (2) Austenite to ferrite transformation occurred only for the low carbon 13% chromium 3% copper steel without nickel even at the small cooling rate, such as 0.01 K/s. This result was mainly attributed to the unstabilization of austenite phase which caused by the precipitation of ε-Cu. Furthermore, austenite of the steel becomes easy to transform to ferrite due to heavy hot working. This phenomenon was seemed to be caused by the increase in the area of austenite grain boundary owing to recrystallization. Thus, it was considered that the nucleation of ε-Cu at the grain boundaries promoted ferrite formation.