Annealing 304 stainless steel foil

[asimpson]

I have 304 stainless steel foil about 0.05 mm (0.002") thick. I dont have much more information . Sorry.

I wish to anneal foil so that it is easier to cold form small squares about 20x20 mm . Is there an easy to do this without having to send to heat treating facility? I have flame torch and high temperature thermocouple probes. I assume there would be more to it than heating to 1100C 2000F and cooling in hot sand.

thanks

 

[EdStainless]

Cool it in a bucket of water. Being single phase there is no hardening mechanism.
Are you sure that it needs to be annealed? Is it as-hard-rolled?

If you don't really care about properties and just want it soft then anything in the 1900-2100F range works. Being foil I wouldn't bother water quenching, just fan cool it.

Doing it in a real furnace will give you more uniform results.


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P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[DeleteriousPhases]

it's possible to build a small furnace using an old scrap vessel shell or cap, line it with firebrick and rock wool, cut a hole for your torch. ensure you seal it well, and it'll hold a lot of heat. you'll have to control the temperature manually, suggest doing a test first. making sure the insulation coverage is complete is important or the furnace will melt itself (from personal experience.) never tried doing a stainless anneal, so you'll have to worry about contaminants and the like. and a platform to hold your material. I use mine at home to work carbon steel blades.

 

[dgallup]

Why not just buy it in the annealed state?

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