rotary bending as a mean for improving micro-cleanliness of stainless steels for high demanding applications

Abstract

Stainless steels are used for automotive or medical applications which require a high fatigue resistance correlated to a high level of micro-cleanliness. A methodology based on rotary bending tests carried out on wires or bars has been defined to determine the material’s endurance limit (after 100 millions cycles) and identify the largest subcutaneous inclusions or precipitates where failures initiate. This methodology has been applied to EN 1.4568 spring wires. Failures were found to initiate both at oxide inclusions and AlN precipitates. For the same size, AlN precipitates were observed to be more critical towards crack initiation than oxide inclusions, due to their angular shape and lower thermal expansion at high temperatures. However, oxide inclusions larger than the AlN maximum size strongly impact the material’s fatigue limit, and their density and size should be reduced.