Mechanism study of sticking occurring during hot rolling of ferritic stainless steel

Mechanisms of sticking phenomena occurring during hot rolling of a modified STS 430J1L ferritic stainless steel have been investigated in this study by using a pilot-plant-scale rolling machine. As the rolling pass proceeds, the Fe-Cr oxide layer formed in a reheating furnace is destroyed, and the destroyed oxides penetrate into the rolled steel to form a thin oxide layer on the surface region. The sticking does not occur on the surface region containing oxides, whereas it occurs on the surface region without oxides by the separation of the rolled steel at high temperatures. This indicates that the resistance to sticking increases by the increase in the surface hardness when a considerable amount of oxides are formed on the surface region, and that the sticking can be evaluated by the volume fraction and distribution of oxides formed on the surface region. The lubrication and the increase of the rolling speed and rolling temperature beneficially affect to the resistance to sticking because they accelerate the formation of oxides on the steel surface region. In order to prevent or minimize the sticking, thus, it is suggested to increase the thickness of the oxide layer formed in the reheating furnace and to homogeneously distribute oxides along the surface region by controlling the hot-rolling process