Effect of martensite to austenite reversion on the formation of nano/submicron grained AISI 301 stainless steel

The martensite to austenite reversion behavior of 90% cold rolled AISI 301 stainless steel was investigated in order to refine the grain size. Cold rolled specimens were annealed at 600–900 °C, and subsequently characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Feritscope, and hardness measurements. The effects of annealing parameters on the formation of fully-austenitic nano/submicron grained structure and the mechanisms involved were studied. It was found that annealing at 800 °C for 10 s exhibited the smallest average austenite grain size of 240 ± 60 nm with an almost fully-austenitic structure.