Effect of annealing temperature on the microstructure of hyperduplex stainless steels

Samples of hyperduplex stainless steels were produced experimentally and exposed to different conventional annealing heat treatments in order to obtain the microstructural balance of 50% ferrite and 50% austenite. To differentiate the ferrite and austenite from any secondary phase, selective etching was used and quantitative metallography was performed to measure the percentage of phases. Results showed that conventional annealing heat treatments promote the transformation from ferrite to sigma phase and secondary austenite, suggesting a higher occurrence of sigma phase in the experimental hyperduplex alloys compared to other duplex alloys due to the superior content of chromium and molybdenum. On the other hand, a balanced microstructure free of secondary phases was accomplished increasing the temperature of the annealing heat treatment, which allowed the transformation of ferrite into austenite during cooling.