Ridging-free ferritic stainless steel produced through recrystallization of lath martensite

Ridging phenomenon was successfully suppressed in a ferritic stainless steel by controlling microstructure through recrystallization of lath martensitic structure. Fe-12Cr-1Ni alloy was quenched after the solution treatment in an austenite single phase region to obtain lath martensitic structure. Cold rolling was performed to the quenched materials up to 80% reduction in thickness before the annealing for recrystallization. With increasing the reduction by cold rolling, the recrystallization was promoted and ferrite grain size was decreased to 20 μm after recrystallization in the 80% pre-cold-rolled material. A weak 〈111〉//ND recrystallization texture was formed by the cold rolling, but no grain colonies existed in the microstructure. As a result, the materials produced through the recrystallization of lath martensite did not cause ridging during tensile deformation, although an orange peel appeared when the grain size was not refined enough.