HEAT TREATMENT EFFECT ON INTERFACE MICROSTRUCTURE AND HARDNESS OF A MEDIUM CARBON STEEL CLADDED BY AISI 316 STAINLESS STEEL

This paper focuses on carbon steel/stainless steel clad plate properties. The cladding was performed by submerged arc welding (SAW) overlay process. Following chemical element diffusion a diffusion layer is formed between stainless steel and carbon steel interface of the cladded plate. Some hardness peaks were detected in the micro-alloyed steel close to the molten interface line in the coarse grained heat affected zone (CGHAZ). Results show that a stress relieving treatment is not sufficient to avoid hardness peaks. On the other hand, the hardness peaks in the CGHAZ of the micro-alloyed steel disappeared after quenching and tempering (Q&T).