1996 Volume 82 Issue 10 Pages 835-840
Austenitic stainless steels are sometimes used for high tensile applications in cold rolled condition. However, it is difficult to manufacture sheets of those steels with good flatness, because they are rolled in high strength. Generally it is difficult to improve the flatness of a high yield strength material satisfactorily through leveling. It was found that pre-cold rolled austenitic stainless steels contract in the rolling direction through leveling. It was considered that the contraction of the sheets can be used for the improvement in flatness, although the contraction strain is small(approximately 0.1%). This study was carried out to reveal the effect of steel grades and reduction in thickness on the contraction. The experimen-tal result showed that the contraction increases as stacking fault energy increases and the amount of martensite decreases. Stress relaxation occurs simultaneously with the contraction, but the contraction strain by leveling is larger than that by stress relaxation. It is considered that the contraction is also related with Bauschinger effect.
