This article discusses the steps in the primary processing of stainless steels: melting, refining, remelting, casting, and hot rolling. It provides information of the major categories of defects in hot rolled stainless steels, namely hot mill defects, inclusion-related defects, and hot ductility-related defects.

This chapter presents a brief description of the three-step process: melting, decarburizing, and alloying. It also discusses the following processes: wild process, rustless process, and Linde Argon-Oxygen decarburization process.

This chapter discusses the processes, procedures, and equipment used in the production of iron, steel, aluminum, and titanium alloys. It describes the design and operation of melting and refining furnaces, including blast furnaces, basic oxygen and electric arc furnaces, vacuum induction melting furnaces, and electroslag and vacuum arc remelting furnaces. It also covers casting, rolling, and annealing procedures and describes the basic steps in aluminum and titanium production.

This chapter describes a process for recovering beryllium from industrial waste associated with beryllium-copper production. It presents several detailed flowsheets along with typical operating parameters such as flow rates, chemical concentrations, particle sizes, and compositional ranges.

This chapter describes the basic steps in the steelmaking process. It explains how iron is reduced from ore in the liquid state through the classic blast furnace process and in the solid state by direct reduction. It discusses the conversion of iron to steel and the technological advancements that led from open hearth steelmaking to basic oxygen processes and ultimately the electric arc furnace (EAF). It describes the versatility, efficiency, and scalability of the EAF process and its impact on recycling and sustainability. It explains how EAF refining and deoxidation practices have changed over time, and describes secondary refining processes such as degassing, homogenization, rinsing, and remelting.

This appendix contains bibliographies related to the history of stainless steel.

This chapter discusses the rise of steel minimills in the late 1960s through the leadership of F. Kenneth Iverson and Gerald Heffernan. The discussion covers the development of processes for flat products, flanged beams, and railroad rails. The chapter also covers the growth of the minimill industry along with the consolidation of the industry into large corporations. The chapter ends by providing information on novel processes developed for making iron.

This chapter recounts some of the early efforts and milestones in the development of stainless steel powders and their use in powder metallurgy applications.

Stainless steel powders are usually made by water or gas atomization. This chapter describes both processes and the properties and characteristics of the powders they produce. It also discusses secondary processes, including drying, screening, annealing, and lubricating, and the effects of iron contamination on corrosion resistance.

This chapter discusses various processes involved in the production of steel from raw materials to finished mill products. The processes include hot rolling, cold rolling, forging, extruding, or drawing. The chapter provides a detailed description of two main furnaces used for making steel: the electric arc furnace and the basic oxygen furnace. It also provides information on the classification and specifications for various steels, namely, plain carbon steels, low-carbon steels, medium-carbon plain carbon steels, and high-carbon plain carbon steels. The chapter concludes with a general overview of the factors influencing corrosion in iron and steel and a brief discussion of corrosion-resistant coatings.

Microstructures can be altered intentionally or unintentionally. In some cases, metallographers must diagnose what may have happened to the steel or cast iron based on the microstructural details. This chapter discusses how microstructure in steels and cast irons can be intentionally altered during heat treatment, solidification, and deformation (hot and cold working). Some specific examples are then shown to illustrate what can go wrong through unintentional changes in microstructure, for example, the loss of carbon from the surface of the steel by the process known as decarburization or the buildup of brittle carbides on the grain boundaries of an austenitic stainless steel by the process known as sensitization.

This chapter examines the early literature on stainless steel to gain an understanding of the state-of-the-art of stainless steel as it progressed through the first 37 years after the discoveries made in Sheffield and Essen.

This chapter describes some common pitfalls encountered in failure investigations and provides guidance to help engineers recognize processes and “quick fixes” that companies often try to substitute for failure analysis. It discusses three important skills and characteristics that a professional engineer must improve to conduct an effective and successful failure investigation, namely technical skills, communication skills, and technical integrity. The chapter also provides information on the additional basic tools available for failure investigation and root cause determination: the Kepner-Tregoe structured problem-solving method, PROACT software for root cause analysis developed by the Reliability Center, Inc., and other processes and methods developed by the Failsafe Network, Inc., and Shainin LLC.

This chapter introduces the principal heat treating processes, namely normalizing, annealing, stress relieving, surface hardening, quenching, and tempering. An overview of four of the more popular surface hardening treatments, namely carburizing, carbonitriding, nitriding, and nitrocarburizing, is provided.

This appendix is a timeline of events related to the discovery, development, and commercialization of stainless steels.

This chapter describes some of the technological milestones of the early 20th century, including the invention of tungsten carbide tool steel, the use of age-hardening aluminum in the Wright Flyer , the development of a new heat treating process for aluminum alloys, and Ford’s pioneering use of weight-saving vanadium alloys in Model T cars. It explains how interest in chromium alloys spread throughout the world, spurring the development of commercial stainless steels. The chapter concludes with a bullet point timeline of early 20th century achievements and a brief assessment of more recent innovations.

This article covers the metallurgy and properties of stainless steels. It provides composition information on all types of ferritic, austenitic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation-hardening stainless steels, including proprietary and nonstandard grades, along with corresponding property and performance data. It also discusses the effect of various alloying elements on pitting, crevice corrosion, sensitization, stress-corrosion cracking, and oxidation resistance.

The unique advantages of the nitriding process were recognized by German researchers in the early 1920s. It was used to treat steels for applications that required: high torque, high wear resistance; abrasive wear resistance; corrosion resistance; and high surface compressive strength. This chapter focuses on key process considerations and factors that helped nitriding gain acceptance. These factors include a low-temperature process, no quench requirement, minimal distortion, high hardness values, and resistance to oxidation.

This chapter discusses the melting and conversion of superalloys and the solidification challenges they present. Superalloys have high solute content which can lead to untreatable defects if they solidify too slowly. These defects, called freckles, are highly detrimental to fatigue life. The chapter explains how and why freckles form as well as how they can be prevented. It describes the criteria for selecting the proper melting method for specific alloys based on melt segregation and chemistry requirements. It compares standard processes, including electric arc furnace/argon oxygen decarburization melting, vacuum induction melting, vacuum arc remelting, and electroslag remelting. It also addresses related issues such as consumable remelt quality, control anomalies, melt pool characteristics, and melt-related defects, and includes a section that discusses the processes involved in converting cast ingots into mill products.