Carbon pick-up in stainless steels

[BM]

A manufacturer of stainless steel pipes uses coal gas in reheating furnace to heat SS billets before the piercing operation. The coal gas is generated by combustion of coal in a hearth before the reheating furnace and 'simply filtered' before entry for combustion in the reheating furnace.

Is there any possibility of carbon pick-up in the billet due to the gas and other carried over products of combustion like tars etc, especially if the billet is of low carbon type?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[Sergio Antonio Muñoz Pinzón]

this is a diffusive problem, diffusion depends mainly on time and temperature CO2 from combustion is relatively stable at the temperatures in your furnace so it is more difficult to diffuse carbon in the steel.

You can measure indeed through chemical analysis if some carbon was pick up during reheating.

Sergio Muñoz

IWE-IIW

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