Process of Austenitizing Treatment in the Production of Seamless Stainless Steel Tubes
During the production process of seamless stainless steel tubes, the high temperatures involved in rolling, drawing, and welding cause changes in the material's structure and mechanical properties, severely affecting the quality of the tubes. These changes primarily include cold working hardening, where a regular misalignment of a row or several rows of atoms occurs within the crystal, resulting in lattice distortion and forming a stress concentration area, also known as dislocation. Due to the welding stresses caused by uneven cooling and the formation of ferrite in the original single Austenite structure, along with the presence of inhomogeneous structures like carbides, to improve production efficiency, ensure a bright surface finish on the stainless steel tubes, eliminate residual stresses, and obtain a single Austenite structure for the production of high-quality stainless steel tubes, it is necessary to implement solution heat treatment.
The solidification treatment temperature is one of the critical parameters in the solidification treatment process. Both too high and too low temperatures can adversely affect the quality of stainless steel pipes. Excessive temperature leads to coarse grain structure in stainless steel pipes, reducing their performance, while insufficient temperature results in incomplete solidification and incomplete stress relief. Selecting 1080°C and ensuring proper heat preservation allows for full dissolution of the carbides.
