Dear Dr. Spyridon Chaskis,

the term ausforming, originating from the technology of high strength steels, is a thermomechanical treatment used to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties in terms of strength and toughness of high-alloy steels. Otherwise ausforging consists in heating the material until the austenitization temperature is reached. Subsequently, the material is cooled to a temperature range where the austenite will be metastable, in which the material will be forged.

The alloy properties are strongly influenced by refining the grain. The benefits of this practice are the improvement of the fracture resistance of steels and the super elasticity phenomenon, which can be achieved in materials with grain size smaller than 10 mm. The grain refinement can be done directly during casting by the solidification control or by variations in the chemical composition of steels followed by suitable thermomechanical processes. Microalloyed steels are obtained with little addition of microalloying elements, which are considered very important structural materials. Among many factors that stimulated the development of the HSLA steel technology, there are the reduction of the structural weight and fabrication cost and the ability of microalloying elements to produce a substantial grain refinement and strengthening by precipitation.

The reason for studying the ausforging process was motivated by the need to produce semi-finished products with well-defined mechanical properties such as strength and toughness. The decrease of the energy used to deform and the increase of forgeability are also reasons that justify this study. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the microstructure and the mechanical strength and toughness of the 27MnSiVS6 microalloyed steel, when ausforged, as well as to analyze the process performance and the quality of products by comparing to those obtained by hot and warm forging.

For more details, please see the source at: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0370-44672013000300010

Best regards, Pierluigi Traverso

Dear Pierluigi Traverso,

Your explanation on the term is enlightening and you described the process with great detail. For more information I will look in the paper you recommened above.

Do you have any other reference for the application of this process on PH stainless steels (i.e books)?

Thank you for your answer on the topic!

Dear Dr. Spyridon Chaskis,

I still send you some references, to clarify more the type and characteristics of the treatment:

-Ausforming: Process and Applications | Steel | Metallurgy

By Jayanti S. – Note

Available at: http://www.engineeringenotes.com/metallurgy/steel/ausforming-process-and-applications-steel-metallurgy/26779

-Ausforming of medium carbon steel

Materials Science and Technology 31,436-442 (2015)

S. W. Seo, G. S. Jung, J. S. Lee, C. M. Bae, H. K. D. H. Bhadeshia and D. W. Suh

Available at: https://www.phase-trans.msm.cam.ac.uk/2015/ausforming.html

-Thermomechanical ausforming technique for producings ubstitute ultra high strength steels

J.K. Mukherjee

Symposium on Metallurgy of Substitute Ferrous & Non-Ferrous Alloys, 27-30 April, NML, Jamshedpur (1966)

Available at: http://eprints.nmlindia.org/3137/1/156-161.PDF

-Effect of Ausforming Temperature on the Microstructure of G91 Steel

Javier Vivas, Carlos Capdevila, José Antonio Jimenez, Miguel Benito-Alfonso and David San-Martin

Metals 7, 236 (2017).

Best regards, Pierluigi Traverso.

Dear Pierluigi Traverso ,

Once again thank you for your help on the topic.

Best regards