Fabrication Process for a High Strength 9Cr-2W Steel Sheet

Abstract

This study deals with the fabrication of high strength ferritic/martensitic steels by a control of both the carbon concentration and the fabrication process parameters. The 9Cr-2W steels containing a carbon concentration of 0.05, 0.07 and 0.11 wt% were normalized at 1050oC for 1 h, followed by a tempering at 550 and 750oC for 2 h, respectively. The results of the tensile tests at room temperature indicated that the tensile strengths were increased with an increase of the carbon concentration from 0.05 wt% to 0.07 wt%, but no more increase was observed when the carbon concentration was increased further up to 0.11%. After a cold rolling from a 4 mm to a 1 mm thickness without/with an intermediate heat treatment and a final heat treatment, the results of the tensile tests exhibited that superior tensile properties were obtained when the fabrication processes were composed of a tempering at 550oC, and a cold rolling with several intermediate heat treatments. These results could be attributed to the finely distributed precipitates in the partially recrystallized matrix. The optimized carbon concentration and the controlled fabrication process parameters are thus suggested to fabricate a high strength 9Cr-2W steel sheet.