Stress corrosion cracking is an insidious form of damage that can occur when a susceptible metal is subjected to a tensile stress in a specific environment. To relieve tensile stresses at welded joints, postweld heat treatment can be helpful in reducing the susceptibility of carbon steel fabrications to SCC. When planning to use stainless steels in chloride-containing environments, it is advisable to select alloys that have been specifically developed to resist stress chloride cracking such as ferritic-austenitic (duplex) alloys, low-carbon ferritic alloys, and 6% Mo austenitic alloys or to select high-nickel alloys.

Proper specification, measurement, and control of annealing furnace atmospheres are critical to reduce sooting, oxidation, sticking, and distortion. This article describes how to effectively design and utilize a nitrogen-hydrogen annealing atmosphere.

This article describes a procedure for optimizing the annealed microstructure of a high Al KAB steel. The main focus is directed toward characterization of microstructural development during annealing of different phases in a nanostructured bainitic steel using high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). This entry won the prestigious 2019 Jacquet-Lucas Award for Excellence in Metallography at the International Metallographic Contest held in Portland, Oregon, October 2019.

This article identifies several factors that are not fully addressed in most fracture toughness test standards and explains how they may influence calculated values obtained from ferritic steels. Of particular consequence are test temperatures within the ductile-to-brittle transition regime and test specimen geometries when measuring the toughness of weld metal and heat-affected zones.

Outdoor enclosures for telecom equipment are often made from aluminum, but with the protective treatments described in this two-part article series, inexpensive steels can serve in the same capacity. Zinc-based galvanizing and aluminizing treatments, which were presented in Part 1, may be used alone or together with corrosion-resistant paints, pretreatments, and sealants described here. This article also assesses the corrosion resistance and adhesion properties of different combinations of steels, coatings, and pretreatments by means of salt fog spray testing.

Outdoor enclosures for telecom equipment are often constructed from powder-coated aluminum, but with appropriate surface treatments, hot and cold rolled steel can serve in the same capacity at a lower cost. This article, the first of a two-part series, discusses the intrinsic corrosion behavior of hot and cold rolled steel and how it can be modified through galvanizing and aluminizing treatments. Part 2, scheduled for the October 2012 issue of AM&P , covers nonmetallic surface treatments and presents corrosion test results.