In collaboration with the Caterpillar Technical Center, researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new modified cast austenitic stainless steel, CF8C-Plus. The material reportedly has better high-temperature performance, durability, and reliability than the common commercial grade of that stainless steel – without increasing cost per pound. CF8C-Plus was developed using “engineered microstructures,” a rapid ORNL alloy design method. The method was derived from more that 20 years of nanoscale microstructural/microcomposition data from the analysis of the roles of all the various alloying elements in the multitude of complex precipitate phases that
form in stainless steels and alloys at high temperatures. This new steel resists failure during creep, mechanical fatigue, and thermal fatigue at up to 850 degrees C, a 200-degree improvement in performance and reliability over the common grade of such cast steel. Applications include high-temperature exhaust components for advanced diesel engines as well as critical or structural components for marine diesel engines, industrial gas turbines, microturbines, automotive gasoline engines, natural gas reciprocating engines, and large land-based gas turbines or steam turbines.
