Ridging-free ferritic stainless steel produced through recrystallization of lath martensite

Ridging phenomenon was successfully suppressed in a ferritic stainless steel by controlling microstructure through recrystallization of lath martensitic structure. Fe-12Cr-1Ni alloy was quenched after the solution treatment in an austenite single phase region to obtain lath martensitic structure. Cold rolling was performed to the quenched materials up to 80% reduction in thickness before the annealing for recrystallization. With increasing the reduction by cold rolling, the recrystallization was promoted and ferrite grain size was decreased to 20 mu m after recrystallization in the 80 % pre-cold-rolled material. A weak < 111 >//ND recrytallization texture was formed by the cold rolling, but no grain colonies existed in the microstructure. As a result, the materials produced through the recrystallization of lath martensite did not cause ridging during tensile deformation, although an orange peel appeared when the grain size was not refined enough.