Here are some discussions of annealing and tempering of steel, including mild steels and stainless steels. The annealing and tempering schedules depend on many variables including composition, cold-working schedule, etc. Its best to find a particular grade and look as the heat treatment for that grade.
http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/heat_faq_index.htm - discussion on heat treating of different steels.
"To harden most steel it is heated to a medium red or slightly above the point where it becomes non-magnetic. It is then quenched in water, oil or air depending on the type of steel. The steel is now at its maximum hardness but is very brittle. To reduce the brittleness the metal is tempered by heating it to some where between 350°F and 1350°F. This reduced the hardness a little and the brittelness a lot. Most steels need to be tempered at about 450°F for maximum usable hardness but every steel is slightly different.
To soften steel so that it can be cold worked and machined is called annealing. To anneal steel is is heated to slightly above the hardening temperature and then cooled as slow as possible. Cooling is done in an insulating medium such as dry powdered lime or in vermiculite. High carbon and many alloy steels can only be cooled slow enough in a temperatue controlled furnace since the cooling rate must be only 20 degrees F per hour for several hours."
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=543 - General article on heat treating of steel.
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http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles/Art15.htm
It is not always necessary to heat the steel into the critical range. Mild steel products which have to be repeatedly cold worked in the processes of manufacture are softened by annealing at 500° to 650°C for several hours. This is known as "process" or "close" annealing, and is commonly employed for wire and sheets. The recrystallisation temperature of pure iron is in the region of 500°C consequently the higher temperature of 650°C brings about rapid recrystallisation of the distorted ferrite Since mild steel contains only a small volume of strained pearlite a high degree of softening is induced. As shown, Fig. 1b illustrates the structure formed consisting of the polyhedral ferrite with elongated pearlite (see also Fig. 2).
Prolonged annealing induces greater ductility at the expense of strength, owing to the tendency of the cementite in the strained pearlite to "ball-up" or spheroidise, as illustrated in Fig. 1c. This is known as "divorced pearlite". The ferrite grains also become larger, particularly if the metal has been cold worked a critical amount. A serious embrittlement sometimes arises after prolonged treatment owing to the formation of cementitic films at the ferrite boundaries. With severe forming operations, cracks are liable to start at these cementite membranes.
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http://www.askzn.co.za/tech/tech_grade_3cr12.htm
- 12% Cr steel and stainless steels properties
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See also
http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles.asp?PageIndex=12
http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles.asp?PageIndex=13
for some articles on stainless steels and tempering of steels.
