Heat treatment of stainless steels. Selection guide

The heat treatments applied during the manufacturing process of stainless steels have an impact on the following properties:

• corrosion resistance ;

• mechanical properties (strength, ductility, brittleness) are mainly determined by tensile and impact tests;

• surface condition (surface oxidation, roughness, extreme skin chemical analysis) ;

• dimensions and shape ;

• dimensional stability.

The best heat treatment is the one that achieves the main goal of improving quality at the lowest cost, while avoiding or minimizing undesirable side effects.

For each category of treatment, we will specify the purpose and the means of achieving it.

We then present the incidents likely to occur during processing and the corresponding countermeasures.