Austenitic stainless steels of high strength and ductility

High strength and high ductility together are prime requirements for modern structural metallic materials. Important industrial examples are steels for car components such as body sheets, tubes and forgings. The present paper traces two lines of alloy development, stable austenitic stainless steels and intentionally metastable austenitic stainless steels. Although both groups have different advantages and disadvantages, each one exceeds all other presently available structural metallic materials in terms of strength to density ratio at equal ductility. © 2004 Carl Hanser Verlag, München.