Dear All, I have read a Stainless steel procurement specification in all pipes flanges and fittings were required to solution treated followed by water quenching. The max carbon content in grades 304 and 316 was specified as 0.035% C. I believe the reason for this is to produce a stabilized steel. But do we require to stabilize the low carbon grades? Thank you very much in advance. Regards, Sharjeel

Thank you very much. You have made many things very clear.

Sharjeel Solution annealing followed by water quench, if specified in purchasing requests, is from using SS materials in corrosive environment and to eliminate (not totally but partially the deleterious effects of some varieties of chromium carbide during cooling from annealing temp) the problems of chromium carbide precipitation and IGSCC due to process conditions. Stabilization anneal is for the purpose of improving long term strength due to possible precipitation of some varieties of chromium carbides (which can affect both strength and corrosion resistance) by adding certain alloying elements in the same SS grades which takes care of the negative effect of particular varieties of chromium carbide precipitation at higher temperature usage and improving both mechanical and to some extent corrosion properties. One way of improving the C.R is to use low carbon grades of SS which limits precipitation of chromium carbide - when manufactured, welded, or when in operational use. Trust this helps you C.V.Srinivasan Nishi Engineers Pvt Ltd India Mar 07, 2008 E-mail: nishi@vsnl.com >Dear All, > >I have read a Stainless steel procurement specification in >all pipes flanges and fittings were required to solution >treated followed by water quenching. > >The max carbon content in grades 304 and 316 was specified >as 0.035% C. > >I believe the reason for this is to produce a stabilized >steel. But do we require to stabilize the low carbon grades? > >Thank you very much in advance. > >Regards, >Sharjeel