HEAT TREATING AUSTENITIC STEEL INFO

[BMccarthy81]

I've been searching for information about stress relieving/softening austenitic steel, mostly 304. I've found that its Stress Relieving Temp is 400-750F, and its annealing is 1850-2050F.
I've been told the steel doesn't respond at all to stress relieving, normailising, hardening and/or tempering process. And that it will only respond to annealing. Is stress relieving this material even worth it? or should I just go past the stress relieve temp and anneal the material?

 

[NickE]

If you need cold worked strength then Don't Anneal. If you wnat really soft material that will work harden relatively rapidly then you would wnat to anneal.

 

[bklauba]

Is the goal of the stress relief dimensional stability?

What can you say about the O/A size, weight, or configuration of the parts?

BK

 

[EdStainless]

Typically, if you have heavily cold worked material and you want to help stability and keep the strength you stress relive. This is for thing like springs from high strength wire.
If you are forming and want to remove the effects of the cold work, or you need the parts soft then you anneal.

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Corrosion never sleeps, but it can be managed.

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