Abstract: Effects of cold deformation and annealing process on microstructure and properties of the 304L austenitic stainless steel for low temperature were studied by means of cold rolling test, annealing test, microstructure observation and mechanical properties testing. The results show that with the increase of cold rolling deformation, the cold rolled grains are elongated and broken along the rolling direction, the density of deformation band gradually increases, the strength of cold rolled steel sheet increases and the elongation decreases. With the increase of annealing temperature, the recrystallized grain size increases gradually, the grain growth trend increases obviously when the annealing temperature is higher than 1120 ℃, the strength of the annealed steel sheet decreases, while the elongation increases. During annealing, the apparent activation energy of grain growth increases with the increase of cold deformation. During low temperature annealing, with the increase of cold rolling deformation, the grain size gradually decreases and the strength increases, while the elongation decreases. The trend is just the opposite during high temperature annealing.

Key words: 304L austenitic stainless steel, cold deformation, annealing, microstructure and properties