The universal thermo-mechanical processing including the interim long-term annealing together with forging for three 12% Cr martensitic steels with different alloying. This thermo-mechanical processing remarkably increases the impact toughness of these steels in wide temperature ranges and reduces the ductile-brittle transition temperature by 10-20 K. There is a 25 °C impact toughness of all 12% Cr steels subjected to the thermo-mechanical processing exceeds 60 J cm-2. Such an increment in impact toughness is accompanied with the significant changes in the structures of all 12% Cr steels with different alloying. The common feature for all 12% Cr steels subjected to the thermo-mechanical processing is found to be a noticeable decrease in delta-ferrite amount. In the steels containing Ta, the decrease in the mean size of prior austenite grains by 20-26% was revealed. For the 12% Cr steels with ultra-low N content, the thermo-mechanical processing provides the changes in the dispersion of M23C6 carbides and MX carbonitrides.
Keywords: electron microscopy; heat-resistant martensitic steels; impact loads; structure; thermo-mechanical processing.