Effect of Heat Treatment on Deformation Induced Martensite in Austenitic Stainless Steel

Austenitic stainless steel with submicron gain size has been attracted due to fine structural control of mechanical properties. In order to achieve a submicron grain size, meta-stable austenitic steel AISI 304 is severely cold deformed and then annealed to different heat treatment cycles. The heat treated samples were then tested for metallurgical phase change, texture components and hardness. It was observed that at 750°C, all the martensite transformed completely into austenite. Further, at the same temperature, it was observed that the texture component {221} was the dominant texture component.