Effect of Cold Work on Microstructure and Corrosion Properties of 304L Stainless Steel

Type 304 stainless steels have profound application in engineering including springs, kitchen equipment, auto wheel covers, hose clamps, truck bodies, exhaust manifolds, storage tanks, piping and pressure vessels, etc. AISI 304 is rolled/deformed uniaxially to reduce the thickness to 20, 40, 60% of the initial thickness using rolling machine (notation CW00, CW20, CW40, CW60). The magnetic character of type 304 stainless steel was measured in terms of percentage martensite content using feritscope after cold rolling. It is observed that the cold work structure forms high dislocation density regions or tangles, which further develop onto tangled network; therefore, higher cold worked material has higher slip bands or planes. As the amount of percentage deformation increases, martensite formation increases, and hence, the magnetic nature increases. With increase in cold work, hardness also increases due to the formation of martensite in different systems of slip planes. Again, it is observed that corrosion test in H2SO4 and KSCN solution highly affects the slip planes.