Structure-Phase Transformations in the Course of Solid-State Mechanical Alloying of High-Nitrogen Chromium-Manganese Steels

Abstract

The solid-state mechanical alloying (MA) of high-nitrogen chromium-manganese austenite steel—MA in a planetary ball mill, —was studied by methods of Mössbauer spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the capacity of a material for the alloying we used mixtures of the binary Fe–Mn and Fe–Cr alloys with the nitrides CrN (Cr2N) and Mn2N. It is shown that ball milling of the mixtures has led to the occurrence of the α → γ transitions being accompanied by the (i) formation of the solid solutions supersaturated with nitrogen and by (ii) their decomposition with the formation of secondary nitrides. The austenite formed by the ball milling and subsequent annealing at 700–800 °C, was a submicrocrystalline one that contained secondary nano-sized crystalline CrN (Cr2N) nitrides. It has been established that using the nitride Mn2N as nitrogen-containing addition is more preferable for the formation and stabilization of austenite—in the course of the MA and subsequent annealing—because of the formation of the concentration-inhomogeneous regions of γ phase enriched with austenite-forming low-mobile manganese.