How to Anneal Stainless Steel to Soften It

A. Hello John!

The stainless you have is likely in the cold rolled condition. Annealing is commonly done at 1900 °F or so, for roughly an hour. You want to cool it fairly fast, especially through the 1500 °F to 800 °F temperature range, to avoid 'sensitization'. In that temp range, the chromium and the carbon in the stainless tend to combine, which depletes your stainless steel of chromium, the magic element that makes it stainless. Water quenching is fine metallurgically, but it may give you additional distortion, causing your sheet to warp or bow.

If you do it in air you WILL get an ugly scale- will you be able to grind it off? I'd recommend trying a small piece to see if you can live with the discoloration. Alternatives include using small stainless steel bags offered by heat treat supply houses, or getting it done commercially in an inert atmosphere.

Good luck!

A. The answer at the start of the thread confuses me. 1900 °F is way too hot for what the person wants to do. I am annealing 316 SST parts as I write this at 750 °F in an electric Kiln. 3 hrs at 750 with a 50 °F per hour cool-down and we went from getting Machined a single part per Carbide inset to 4 parts or more per insert. There is no scale formation and very little color change on the surface.

A. Hello Chris!

What I was talking about are small bags, or envelopes, made of stainless steel. You put your parts inside, fold the metal as tightly as you can to keep out air, and anneal the package. Nabertherm in Germany makes them, as does Sentry in the US under their Sen/Pak trade name. Google "annealing envelopes" or something similar and you'll see pictures of what I'm describing. They give reasonable protection at the high temperatures used for thorough annealing of 18-8 stainless steel grades. We use something similar when aging beryllium copper- I'll wrap parts in aluminum foil and flow nitrogen gas through the package, and it works like a charm. The parts go in shiny and come out shiny. Aluminum melts at too low a temperature for wrapping stainless steel, however.

Regarding your current practice, and looking at Uddeholm's temperature chart (www.uddeholm.com/files/Temperature_guide.pdf ) I see that orange is about 1700 °F, and that's pretty high. Ten minutes won't fully anneal stainless grades, as you won't get any carbide dissolution, but you will get a great reduction of the residual stress you put in from bending or cutting or other working. So it's worthwhile, and may be all you need, but if you want to heat higher for longer, try the annealing bags.

Good luck!

Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York

A. Hi Rowland!

You could bend it part way, then anneal, then bend it some more. Maybe take more than two steps, if you have the luxury. That would certainly reduce the amount of residual stress in the bar, and allow it to retain the S shape.

Good luck!

A. Yes it is possible to anneal Type 441 stainless steel tubing. Full annealing is performed by heating to a temperature between 760 and 830 °C for 90 minutes per 25 mm of thickness, followed by air quenching. Stress relieving, e.g., after welding, can be performed in the range of 200-300 °C.

Q. Deborah, did you get any response to your question? I would really like to know the answer too.

A. Hi Mary. Annealing for softening can be done, but it's by no means simple to understand, let alone do :-)

For example you harden copper by cooling it slowly, and soften it by cooling it rapidly -- whereas with steel you do the exact opposite. And with stainless steel, you also have to be conscious of cooling at the right rate through critical temperature zones as explained by Lee Gearhart. And then you have the issue of oxidation (blackening) unless you are able to exclude air with a special furnace or the stainless steel bags that he talks about.

I would not want to discourage you at all, but annealing stainless steel is a challenge you'll really have to work at, not a quick trick. And if you read jewelry-making forums I think they'll all suggest that you find sterling silver flatware, not stainless, for your designs :-)

Luck and Regards,

 Thanks Ted. I think your suggestion of sterling is the right one for me. I don't have a shop with anvils etc. Ah well.

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A. Well, today we heated an area of ~ 3" all the way around below the fishmouth weld to cherry red while rigorously nudging the leg with a ratchet, 22 mm socket and a 4' length of 1-1/2" pipe. It took a lot of force, but it worked fine, with no pitting or visible deformation; should clean-up fine with a Scotch-Brite pad and lots of elbow grease.

Cheers, Dale