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

A. E. ARES; R. CARAM; M. A. JAIME; C. E. SCHVEZOV

Opio

Conferencia; MCWASP International Conference. Modeling of Casting, Welding and Advanced Solidification Processes XI; 2006

The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS)

The solidification microstructure of an austenitic stainless steel is basically dependent on composition, mostly nickel and chromium contents. It is well known that the most powerful ferrite (BCC phase) stabilizer is chromium, while the most powerful austenite (FCC phase) stabilizer is nickel. The solidification microstructure is also dependent on thermal parameters that 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 extensively used to produce plenty of engineering products up to the present day, including aircrafts parts for the aerospace industry and prosthesis implant parts made of stainless steel. The main objective of the present work is the comprehension of solidification of an austenitic stainless steel 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 differential thermal analysis (DTA); determination of the correlation among thermal parameters of the directional solidification process of the AISI 316 L steel, through techniques of directional solidification; execution of the real process of precision casting of the orthopaedic prosthesis and monitoring of the temperatures evolution.