Welded ferritic stainless steel articles

Abstract

A stainless steel welded article with excellent corrosion resistance, formability and notch toughness, such as welded tubing and the like, made from a columbium and/or titanium stabilized substantially fully ferritic stainless steel consisting essentially of, in weight percent, below 0.04 carbon, below 0.04 nitrogen, the sum of the carbon and nitrogen contents being above 0.006 and below 0.07, up to 1.0 manganese, up to 1.0 silicon, 23.0 to less than 28.0 chromium, 2.00 to 4.75 nickel, 0.75 to 3.50 molybdenum, and the balance iron and incidental impurities. When carbon plus nitrogen is in the range of 0.006 to 0.04, columbium in the amount of 0.05 to 0.70 may be used alone, but the columbium content must be at lest equal to eight times the carbon plus nitrogen content. When carbon plus nitrogen is in the range of 0.02 to 0.07, titanium in the amount of 0.12 to 0.70 may be used alone, providing titanium is present in an amount at least equal to six times the carbon plus nitrogen content, or it may be used in combination with columbium with each being present in an amount up to 0.30 providing the titanium and columbium contents are at least equal to those satisfying the following equation: