BENCHMARK EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SOLIDIFICATION FOR MODELING OF INVESTMENT CASTING OF AN AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL TYPE AISI 316 L

ALICIA ESTHER ARES; RUBENS CARAM; CARLOS E. SCHVEZOV

Modeling of Casting, Welding and Advanced Solidification Processes - XI

TMS

Lugar: Warrendale; Año: 2006; p. 1003 - 1010

The solidification microstructure of an austenitic stainless steel is basically dependent oncomposition, mostly nickel and chromium contents. It is well known that the most powerfulferrite (BCC phase) stabilizer is chromium, while the most powerful austenite (FCC phase)stabilizer is nickel. The solidification microstructure is also dependent on thermal parametersthat are cooling rate, solidification velocity and the thermal gradients during the process.Investment casting process is considered one of the oldest techniques of metals fabrication.Even though this technique have been utilized for up to 4000 years, the process is extensivelyused to produce plenty of engineering products up to the present day, including aircrafts partsfor the aerospace industry and prosthesis implant parts made of stainless steel. The mainobjective of the present work is the comprehension of solidification of an austenitic stainlesssteel type AISI 316 L. Such objective is reached as of the execution of the following studies:the determination of the points of transformation of the AISI 316 L steel, through differentialthermal analysis (DTA); determination of the correlation among thermal parameters of thedirectional solidification process of the AISI 316 L steel, through techniques of directionalsolidification; execution of the real process of precision casting of the orthopaedic prosthesisand monitoring of the temperatures evolution