A technical note on the phase transformation in furnace container material after a periodic thermo-chemical treatment

The aim of this work is to investigate the metallurgical changes in the wall of cylindrical containers, fabricated by welding from AISI 310 steel, used in the thermal and chemical treatment of spindle chains for the automotive industry, for an in-service period of over 1000 h. In order to identify the phases originated during this in-service period, several etchants were used in the structural study, together with X-ray diffraction and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy analysis. The metallographic technique demonstrates some limitations in the complete identification of the phases produced in the wall of the containers. The structure of the wall of the containers, after the referred to working period, is composed of an austenitic matrix, whose grain size is about 212 and 238 μm, near the internal and external faces of the wall, respectively. These show numerous precipitates inside the grains and at the grain boundaries. The density of the precipitates decreases from the internal to the external surface. The precipitates are nitrides (Cr, Mo)12 (Fe,Ni)8−x N4−z near the internal surface, and carbides (Cr, Fe, Mo)23C6 on the other zones of the wall.