Preparation of Nanocrystalline 430L Stainless Steel by HEBM and SPS Original Research Article

Preparation of nanocrystalline 430L stainless steel by both high-energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering technique has been investigated. The results have shown that the hardness can be improved markedly with an increase in sintering temperature and holding time. The lower the apparent porosity of nanocrystalline 430L stainless steel, the higher is the Vickers-hardness. The tensile strength reached a maximum value of 713 MPa when the sample was sintered at 1 173 K for 10 min, and then it evidently decreased with an increase in sintering temperature and holding time because of the growth of crystalline grain.