Abstract
Austenitic stainless steel has good corrosion resistance because of its high chromium content. Moreover, it can be hardened significantly by cold-working, though it is not hardened by heat treatment. Cold rolled austenitic stainless steel is, therefore, widely applied in spring parts, transportation equipment, architectural materials and so on. However, this cold rolled austenitic stainless steel has the peculiar behavior during annealing at low temperature which is not observed in annealed stainless steel. (1)It contracts significantly parallel to the rolling direction during annealing without load. (2)Creep occurs at low stress below the proof strength. To study the mechanism of contraction, the effect of stability of austenite, hardness and martensite induced plasticity on contraction were investigated, and 30% reduced austenitic stainless steel was found to contract by 317×10-4 during annealing. Contraction is considered to be connected with ε-martensite and stress relaxation.
