Can solution annealing be done on carbon and low alloy steels. please give an explanatory answer.
No. Carbon steel has two different crystal structures, FCC and BCC , depending on the temperature. when you heat steel up and then quench it, it locks the crystal structure into the BCC form. this makes it hard. whereas precipitation hardened austentic stainlesses remain BCC regardless of the temp, so the hardness change is not a function of thermally induced strain. you can anneal carbon steel but the thermal profile is closer to the precipitation profile of PH stainlesses than it is to the Solution annealing profile.
