Can you anneal stainless steel

An Easy Beginners Guide on how to anneal different metals To…. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. An easy guide on how to soften and anneal metals To define the annealing process in simple terms means to remove any stresses and return material to a soft and workable state, ie.

How To Anneal Brass Annealing brass is very similar to copper, although the temperature should be a little cooler. How To Anneal Aluminum Aluminium Now here you need to be very careful as the difference in temperature between softening and melting is marginal. How To Anneal Steel Annealing steel is generally needed when you are dealing with heat hardened steels.

This process is completed under very precise conditions. To avoid oxygenation, scaling, and decarburization, Bluewater Thermal can carry out the process of annealing stainless steel in protective, inert atmospheres such as endothermic gas, hydrogen gas, nitrogen gas, argon gas, or vacuum. Components to be annealed are heated in production furnaces, and then slowly cooled under a controlled environment.

Air atmosphere annealing stainless steel is also a low-cost option for raw material and unfinished parts where decarburization and scaling are permitted. Our facilities in Coldwater, MI, and Chicago, IL use continuous mesh belt furnaces for bright annealing of stainless steel products. I think there is something wrong in the thought process.

Small componnts,finish machined etc where value addition is very high one can consider exotic quenching methods,else stick to the basic practices. What kind of saty issues? Could you give me some examples? One safety issue is splashing of liquid nitrogen. What is the temperature of the part before immersion? What is the ratio of part mass to LN2 bath mass?

You can get violent motion of the LN2 when introducing a hotter part, even if it is only at room temperature. Another safety issue is evaporation of LN2 can cause low oxygen conditions. The room will need to be appropriate for air flow, etc. If they are going to blow very cold nitrogen gas onto the heads then it should work, provided that they do it uniformly enough to minimize distortion.

LN is a very poor quench. The cooling rates would be significantly slower than in water. The LN boils on the surface of the part and you end up with the part blanketed in nitrogen gas.

I suspect someone has things confused. AS EdStainless mentioned, LN2 does a poor job or heat transfer unless the surface is already very cold. You get a vapor blanket around the part and that seriously reduces the cooling rate. The object of quenching is not geting the material very cold, but to cool it quickly. It would be much more likely that they are considering using a furnace that does not have water quenching capability as in a vacuum furance and are trying to back-flush with gaseous nitrogen for a quench.

Hi Rowland! You could bend it part way, then anneal, then bend it some more. Maybe take more than two steps, if you have the luxury. That would certainly reduce the amount of residual stress in the bar, and allow it to retain the S shape. Is it possible to anneal Stainless Steel Tubing? How do you anneal SS tubing? Yes it is possible to anneal Type stainless steel tubing. Stress relieving, e. I would like to make jewelry and other decorative items from old stainless steel flatware.

Although it's possible to hammer it flat and bend it into desired shapes, it's hardness makes it quite difficult. Years ago I worked in a jewelry store and used a gas torch to repair jewelry. Because of that, I am thinking that if I annealed the flatware before trying to bend it, it's malleability would be increased. Unfortunately, I don't remember what we used for annealing I'd appreciate any suggestions for making these items easier to work with as well as suggestions for where to obtain the annealing material.

Thanks so much for your help! Deborah, did you get any response to your question? I would really like to know the answer too. Hi Mary. Annealing for softening can be done, but it's by no means simple to understand, let alone do :- For example you harden copper by cooling it slowly, and soften it by cooling it rapidly -- whereas with steel you do the exact opposite.

And with stainless steel, you also have to be conscious of cooling at the right rate through critical temperature zones as explained by Lee Gearhart. And then you have the issue of oxidation blackening unless you are able to exclude air with a special furnace or the stainless steel bags that he talks about.

I would not want to discourage you at all, but annealing stainless steel is a challenge you'll really have to work at, not a quick trick. And if you read jewelry-making forums I think they'll all suggest that you find sterling silver flatware, not stainless, for your designs