Abstract
This paper reports on the effects of heat treatment on
3CR12 and AISI 316 stainless steel grades. Heat treatment was
conducted on the steel grades and cooled using two different media;
air and water in order to study the effect of each medium on the
evolving properties of the samples. The heat treated samples were
characterized through the evolving microstructure and hardness. It
was found that there was a significant grain size reduction in both the
heat treated stainless steel specimens compared to the parent
materials. The finer grain sizes were achieved as a result of
impediment to growth of one phase by the other. The Vickers
microhardness values of the heat treated samples were higher
compared to the parent materials due to the fact that each of the steel
grades had a proportion of martensitic structures in their
microstructures thereby improving the integrity of the material.