Inclusions for Ultra-pure Ferritic Stainless Steels Containing 21% Chromium

As stabilizing elements added into ultra-pure ferritic stainless steels, niobium and titanium react with carbon and nitrogen to form carbonitrides and have great effects on the ratio of equiaxed zone and the grain size of solidification structure of ingots, which remarkably affect the quality of cold-rolled sheets. Combined with thermodynamic calculation, style and precipitation progress of inclusions in ultra-pure ferritic stainless steels were investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results indicate that the inclusions are mainly Ti-Al-N-O system inclusions in ultra-pure ferritic stainless steels. Al2O3 starts to precipitate firstly and then TiOx and TiN precipitates sequently. The inclusions are mainly single TiN particles and complex inclusions with Al2O3-Ti2O3 as cores and covered with TiN under the condition of 0.31% titanium addition and mainly Al2O3 under the condition of 0.01% titanium addition. A few (Nb, Ti) N particles precipitate because of no enough titanium to react with nitrogen when titanium addition is 0.01%. In addition, fine Nb(C, N) particles with size of less than 500 nm precipitate at relatively low temperature.