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How may I soften stainless steel

March 21, 2008

many thanks for the site.

We have a trouble. A stainless steel plate is to be bended into a rounded-corner container. It is hard to bend in the press. How may we soften it. Do we need to go above recrystallisation temperature. We have a furnace that goes up to 500 deg. C.

The alloy composition is

c=0.1%
Mn=8.5-10%
P=0.09%
S=0.03%
Si=0.75%
Cr=15-16%
Ni=1.2%max
N=0.2%
Cu=2%, a low nickel austenitic stainless steel.
Many thanks.

Kanyakumari Datta
engineer, forming - Kolkata, India

Conventional Grades s30900 - s31700 1040-1120C Sabilized Grades s32100-no8o20 955-1065C Low Carbon Grades s30403-s31703 1010-1110C Respectively hit mid point of temperature hold time approximately 1hr per each inch of thickness Best to find a Vacuum Heat Treater so surface oxidation and Susceptibility to Intergranular attack will be minimized.

Scott Workman
- Amory, Ms, USA
March 29, 2008

If the plate are heat treated than not possiility of softning of low nickel grade steel.if plate not heat treated than heat upto 1050 deg.than water quenchning solve the problem.

Umashankar Gupta
- Hyderabad, India
March 30, 2008

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