a cast structure or a forged and rolled structure, by assuming the same heat treatment condition and also by the appearance of the d-phase. As previously reported, 9) even the low C-9Cr-3Co-3W-V, Nb-N-B steel 18) showed the same formation behavior under the same heat treatment condition and the same contents of boron and nitrogen as the ones in this study. In other words, the formation of boron nitride inclusions is assumed to be affected mainly by the added contents of boron and nitrogen and the condition of heat treatments, and is hardly influenced by the steel structure.
The Methods to Avoid the Formation of CoarseSize Boron Nitride Inclusions Boron and nitrogen that would help improve the creep strength of newly developed high Cr heat resistant steels would not perform efficiently if a large number of coarse boron nitride inclusions form. The growth of boron nitride inclusions of 20 to 30 mm are assumed to have undesirable influences on the mechanical properties of steel such as fatigue, thermal fatigue and impact. Therefore, the cooling rates after the hot working process should be controlled to avoid the formation of these inclusions. They can be avoided by adapting fast cooling rates or by controlling the heat treatments of normalizing or tempering to relatively thin and small size products such as heat exchange tubes.However, it will be difficult to employ fast cooling rates to thick and large size products such as main steam pipes that are produced from several ton steel ingots. The amount of boron and nitrogen concentrations which do not form boron nitride inclusions and the minimum adequate nitrogen contents that is needed to precipitate vanadium and niobium nitrides will have to be determined. Figure 12 shows the relation between boron and nitrogen in high Cr heat resistant steels that is necessary to form coarse size boron nitride inclusions 9) and the limits of boron and nitrogen concentrations in P122 and P92 steels by the ASME code.3) As shown in Fig. 12, boron and nitrogen concentrations are include in the area of boron nitride formation for both P122 and P92 steels. Therefore, we should try to obtain the boron and nitrogen concentration limit at the left side of the plot and the lowest point in the concentration limit area, to avoid the formation of coarse size boron nitride inclusions as much as possible.
ConclusionsThe influences of remelting, forging, rolling and heat treatment on the boron nitride inclusion that were formed in P122 heat resistant steel containing 0.003 mass% boron and 0.06 mass% nitrogen were investigated by the SEM observation of the fractured surface. The following conclusions were drawn from this investigation.(1) The temperature where the boron nitride inclusion formation in P122 steel begins is between 1 150 to 1 200°C.(2) After forging and rolling, boron nitride inclusions form agglomerated groups of 20 to 30 mm during very slow cooling or of 10 to 20 mm during medium slow cooling.(3) Re-dissolution of boron nitride inclusions into the steel matrix begins above 1 200°...