The influence of microstructure deformation on the corrosion resistance of cold formed stainless steel

Abstract

Rotary swaging is an incremental cold forming process to produce axisymmetric workpieces from rods and tubes. The process also induces changes of the microstructure of the material depending on the process parameters. This in turn influences the mechanical properties like hardness as well as the electrochemical properties. As a result of changed electrochemical properties, the passivity of the material and thus the corrosion behavior changes. In order to investigate the influence of rotary swaging on the corrosion behavior of the stainless steel AISI304, deformed micro parts are electrochemically analyzed. The measurements reveal a dependency of corrosion rate and impedance on both feed velocity and final diameter of the rotary swaging process. A higher feed velocity decreases the corrosion rate and increases the impedance indicating a better resistance against corrosion as a side effect of rotary swaging.