Fabricating Austenitic Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is widely used to make many different items like magnetic jewellery, furniture, cookware, and car accessories. This is because steel can be fabricated through all standard fabrication methods. This goes especially for austenitic grade steels. In some cases, these are fabricated more severely compared to popular carbon steels.
Common austenitic grade steels have the ability to be bent, folded, spun and rolled, deep drawn, or forged (hot and cold). They have a high rate of work hardening and strength, which is why fabrication operations need more force compared to fabricating carbon steels. To make the job easier, heavier machineries are required. Providing more allowance may also be needed for spring-back.
Aside from high strength, austenitic steels are highly ductile. They can be formed through heavy cold forging into products like deep drawn troughs. This can be done despite the high rate of work hardening. There are few metals that have the ability to be deformed without splitting. For fabricating austenitic steels, common processes of electric welding are employed.