Corrosion-resistant coating technique for oxide-dispersion-strengthened ferritic/martensitic steel

Oxide-dispersion-strengthened (ODS) steels are attractive materials for application as fuel cladding in fast reactors and first-wall material of fusion blanket. Recent studies have focused more on high-chromium ferritic (12-18wt% Cr) ODS steels with attractive corrosion resistance properties. However, they have poor material workability, require complicated heat treatments for recrystallization, and possess anisotropic microstructures and mechanical properties. On the other hand, low-chromium ferritic/martensitic (8-9wt% Cr) ODS steels have no such limitations; nonetheless, they have poor corrosion resistance properties. In our work, we developed a corrosion-resistant coating technique for a low-chromium ferritic/martensitic ODS steel. The ODS steel was coated with the 304 or 430 stainless steel, which has better corrosion resistances than the low-chromium ferritic/martensitic ODS steels. The 304 or 430 stainless steel was coated by changing the canning material from mild steel to stainless steel in the conventional material processing procedure for ODS steels. Microstructural observations and micro-hardness tests proved that the stainless steels were successfully coated without causing a deterioration in the mechanical property of the low-chromium ferritic/martensitic ODS steel.