Austenitic Grain Size Effect on the Phase Transformation of a 7.0% Cr Steel for Forging

In this paper the effect of normalizing and tempering (N&T) thermal treatment on mechanical properties of a novel 7.0% Cr steel for forged components is studied. The main innovation is in the increased hardenability following the higher Cr content with respect to the more common 5% Cr steel allowing to lower the content of other chemical elements aimed to achieve the target mechanical properties. Results show that in the case of 7.0% Cr steel, following the high intrinsic hardenability, the austenitic grain size effect on microstructure after cooling is really poor.