Electrolytic pickling of duplex stainless steel

• Pickling of duplex stainless steels has proved to be much more difficult than that of standard austenitic grades. Electrolytic pre-pickling is shown to be a key process towards facilitating the pickling process for material annealed both in the production-line and in laboratory experiments. The mechanism for the neutral electrolytic process on duplex 2205 and austenitic 316 steels has been examined and the oxide scale found to become thinner as a function of electrolytic pickling time. Spallation or peeling of the oxide induced by gas evolution did not play a decisive role. A maximum of about 20% of the current supplied to the oxidised steel surface goes to dissolution reactions whereas about 80% of the current was consumed in oxygen gas production. This makes the current utilisation very poor, particularly against the background of reports that in indirect electrolytic pickling only about 30% of the total current, supplied to the process, actually goes into the strip. A parametric study was therefore carried out to determine whether adjustment of process variables could improve the current utilisation.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Strömningsmekanik och akustik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Austenite

Decision making

Electrolysis

Peeling

Pickling

Productivity

Spalling

Anode surfaces

Bubble coverage

Duplex stainless steel

Electrolytic pickling

Fluid mechanics

Strömningsmekanik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)