A

Abrasion - resistant Steels - A family of steel products developed for those applications involved in sliding and impact abrasion.
Air Hardening Steel - Steels, such as low chromium and martensitic stainless steels, that do not require quenching to produce hardening by the martensitic reaction.
Alloying - Alloying, in the common metallurgical sense, refers to the dissolving of one or more elements in a metal to produce a metallic mix or alloy.

B

Balanced Analysis - A term used to indicate the relative quantities of alloying elements necessary to produce the specifed properties or metallurgical structures in a specific type of steel.
Bright Annealed - Bright annealing prevents the formation of undesirable scale that occurs on the surface of steel during the annealing process. During typical annealing, the heated steel combines with oxygen in the air to form a layer of oxide on the steel’s surface. In bright annealing, the steel is heated in a furnace flled with hydrogen or nitrogen gases, which prevents oxide scale formation.
Bufing - A polishing operation utilizing a very One abrasive compoundon a prepared rotating wheel, which contacts the work surface.

D

Duplex - Steels exhibiting both austenitic and ferritic structures.

I

Intergranular Corrosion - Corrosion that occurs at the grain boundaries in austenitic stainless steels that have been heat treated between 850° and 1450°F. Usually caused by precipitation ofthe chrome carbides.

O

Orange Peel - Roughening of the surface sometimes encountered in forming or drawing stainless steels that have a coarse grain structure.
Oxide Film Theory - An explanation of passivity based upon the supposition that a relatively impermeable layer of oxide forms on the suface of stainless steel that retards attack by corrosives.

P

Passivity - The ability of certain metals and alloys, especially the stainless steels, to resist normal corrosion to the point where the metal remains unattacked
Precipitation Hardening - Hardening that is caused by the precipitation of a metallic compound from a supersaturated solid solution.

R

Retained Austenite - A tendency in martensitic alloys that increases with the alloy and carbon content and with rate of cooling, to retain at room temperature a fraction of the austenite phase hat is stable at the high temperature and which fails to transform to martensite on cooling.
Roping - A fibrous surface pattern that can occur in 400 series sheet and strip when stretched or drawn. This pattern is always in the rolling direction and may require metal removal by polishing if a smooth surface is desired.

S

Semi-hardening - A hardening treatment for martensitic steels in which the metal is quenched from such a low austenitizing temperature that only a portion of the metal transforms, yielding a semimartensitic alloy particularly adaptable to machining operations.
Sensitization - A term used to describe the condition of the austenitic stainless steels resulting from heating them in the temperature range of approximately 800° to 1500°F and cooling to room temperature. When the metal is held in the sensitization range, the carbon in the steel combines with some of the chromium and precipitates as chromium carbide at the grain boundaries. This depletes chromium in the area of the grain boundaries and makes the
metal susceptible in those areas to attack in some corrosive media.
Sigma Phase - A brittle and hard intermetallic compound of the general formula FeCr, but having a composition range of broad extension, tending to form particularly in the ferrite of high chromium stainless steels when heated for a period of time in the general range of 925° to 1750°F.
Subzero Treatment - Part of a hardening treatment in which the martensitic steel is quenched from the austenizing temperature and brought immediately to a very low temperature to promote the develo ment of martensite - particularly useful for steels tending to have “retained austenite”.