On the microstructure effects when using electropulsing versus furnace treatments while drawing inox 308L

Abstract

tIn the present work, microstructure and texture evolution in a commercial 308L stain-less steel wire is assessed by comparing several electropulsing configurations and thermalannealing treatments performed during and after a single pass wire drawing process. Inthis context, the objective is to determine if the electropulsing brings significant differenceson the material microstructure with respect to a conventional annealing treatment. To thisend, electron backscattered diffraction was used to analyze the microstructure changes inall the studied cases. The results indicate that recrystallization and detwinning are drasti-cally accelerated when in situ electropulsing treatment is applied in the specimen during itsdrawing. Moreover, electropulsing or large times of furnace treatments after the wire draw-ing are found to enhance the material conductivity compared to the in situ electropulsingtreatment during the wire drawing. Finally, differential scanning calorimetry and materialresistivity are performed to analyze the thermal events in a meso/micro scale. Accordingly,the bulk temperature for the electropulsed specimens is assumed to be much higher thanthe bulk temperature recorded at the surface of the specimen.