On the purpose of increasing the toughness of welded joint, Mn-added low-interstitial 18 Cr ferritic stainless steel has been developed.
The present investigation has been directed to make clear the effects of Mn and Ti contents, and of rolling schedule on the formability of titanium-stabilized 18 Cr-Mn ferritic stainless steel sheet. Formability and texture development are evaluated by utilizing mainly plastic strain ratios (r value), work-hardening coefficients (n value) and X-ray pole figure analysis.
Mn addition of less than 2% has little effect on the formability of cold-rolled annealed sheet. The {554} <225> type texture is formed by Ti addition, and composition range of Ti having the best formability depends on C and N contents and not on Mn. Two-step cold reductions produce higher r values than those produced by the one-step schedules, but Δr values also increase with two-step reductions. The sheet with the least plastic anisotropy can be produced by the processing conbination of non hot-band annealing and one-step cold rolling.
