Microstructures of a powder metallurgy-hot-isostatically pressed super duplex stainless steel forming in industrial heat treatments

The microstructures of a powder metallurgy/hot-isostatically pressed super duplex stainless steel, designed and manufactured for massive components of paper machines, were studied after heat treatments simulating the industrial production. It was shown that copper precipitates in the ferrite phase as [epsilon] phase. Morphologically, the copper precipitates are of two types-nearly spherical particles of typical size from 30 to 50 nm, and rodlike particles 30- to 35-nm wide, and up to 700-nm long. The main observations on copper precipitation in modern super duplex stainless steels are similar to those in low-alloy steels. Copper particles were shown to be the nucleation sites for the formation of secondary austenite and to pin the boundaries of sigma phase. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]