Correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties before and after reversion of metastable austenitic stainless steels

Reversion treatments are a way to improve the mechanical response of metastable austenitic stainless steels by means of grain refinement. To effectively apply those treatments, the steel must be previously deformed to induce a significant amount of martensitic transformation. In this work, the effect of reversion treatments was studied on a commercial AISI 301LN grade subjected to an industrial cold rolling process, with thickness reductions not higher than 40 pct. Microstructural changes and evolution of both monotonic and cyclic mechanical properties were investigated after cold rolling and upon reversion treatments. Results revealed that the finer austenitic microstructure obtained after reversion leads to an interesting combination of properties, with strong increments in hardness and yield strength, and also fatigue limit improvement, as compared to the initial annealed condition