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Generally the strength of stainless austenitic steels does not live up to their good corrosion resistance. Solid solution hardening by interstitial elements is a means of raising the strength, but is used only moderately because of poor weldability, which, however, is not required in various applications. The solubility of nitrogen is high in stainless austenite of steels with 18 mass% of Cr and Mn each, but low in the melt. Carbon reveals the opposite behaviour. Instead of producing high nitrogen steels by pressure metallurgy, about 1 mass% of C+N is dissolved in the melt at ambient pressure. The new cost‐effective C+N steel reaches a yield strength of 600 MPa, a true fracture strength above 2500 MPa and an elongation above 70 %. Conduction electron spin resonance revealed a high concentration of free electrons. Thus, the ductile metallic character of the C+N steel is enhanced, explaining the high product of strength times toughness. The high interstitial content requires rapid quenching to avoid an embrittling precipitation and respective intercrystalline corrosion.

Mechanisms of cold work hardening in three austenitic steels containing (mass%) 12Mn and 1.2C (Hadfield steel denoted as C1.2); 21Cr, 23Mn, 2Ni and 0.9N (Böhler steel P‐560 denoted as N0.9); 18Cr, 18Mn, 0.345C, 0.615N (CARNIT steel denoted as CN0.96) were studied using mechanical tension tests and TEM studies of substructure formed in the course of plastic deformation. Hadfield steel C1.2 reveals the smallest yield and ultimate stresses and elongation but the highest cold work hardening. Similar yield and ultimate stresses were obtained for steels N0.9 and CN0.96 with a higher elongation and cold work hardening for the latter. The analysis of TEM results leads to the following conclusions: Cold work hardening of the carbon steel C1.2 is mainly due to intensive twinning with rather thick twins. Localized planar slip is a feature of the substructure in the nitrogen steel N0.9 and carbon+nitrogen steel CN0.96 at strains up to 10 %, whereas twinning is involved in deformation at strains in the range of 10 to 50%. The strain‐induced ∊ martensite is rarely observed in both of these steels at strains above 30 %. The substructure and cold work hardening are discussed in terms of stacking fault energy, short‐range atomic order and binding between interstitial atoms and dislocations.

Steels with 18 to 19 mass% Cr and Mn each were studied in the as-cast condition containing 0.85 mass% C þ N and in the elektro-slag-remelted and hot worked condition containing 0.96 mass% C þ N after final solution annealing. The latter was also tested after 20% prestraining. The results of tensile tests were compared to those of rotating bending and push/pull loading. The higher C þ N content raised the 0.2% proof strength to about 600 MPa of which 70% were retained as fatigue limit of rotating bending at 10 7 cycles and a failure probability of 50%. Prestraining further improved this limit but lowered it in relation to the proof strength. The structural components of cold work hardening under unidirectional loading and cyclic loading were similar (planar slip, dislocation, twins and e-martensite) except for precipitates in the latter. Nitrides appeared in the austenite and carbides in the e-plates.

The effect of up to 0.5 mass% C on a steel with 18 to 19 mass% Cr and Mn each and about 0.6 mass% N was investigated by tensile tests, notch impact tests and corrosion tests. The experimental results show that the solution anneal temperature and the sensitisation to intercrystalline corrosion depend on the carbon content which raise the strength and cold work hardening. Up to 1 mass% CþN the ductile to brittle transition temperature remains at about À90 8C. Corrosion in diluted aqueous solutions of H 2 SO 4 , HCl and NaCl is described.