The carbide phase is critical in high-carbon martensitic stainless steels (HCMSS) used for cutlery. In this study, carbide evolution during the austenitizing of different HCMSS (5Cr15MoV, 7Cr17MoV, 9Cr14MoV, and 9Cr18MoV) and its effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties are investigated. The statistical analysis of carbides suggests that the dissolution of small-sized secondary carbides (< 0.5 μm) improves the hardness. The improvement in toughness is related to the increase in the volume fraction of the retained austenite determined by the dissolution of the larger secondary carbides (> 0.5 μm). Due to the influence of the elemental diffusion distance, the interfacial energy, and directional dissolution, small-sized carbides are more soluble than large-size carbides, which can be determined by the change of the ratio of Cr/Fe (wt.%) of carbides.

碳化物相在用于餐具的高碳马氏体不锈钢（HCMSS）中至关重要。在这项研究中，研究了奥氏体化过程中不同HCMSS（5Cr15MoV，7Cr17MoV，9Cr14MoV和9Cr18MoV）的碳化物演化及其对显微组织和力学性能的影响。碳化物的统计分析表明，较小尺寸的次生碳化物（<0.5μm）的溶解可提高硬度。韧性的提高与残余奥氏体体积分数的增加有关，该残余奥氏体的体积分数由较大的二次碳化物（> 0.5μm）的溶解确定。由于元素扩散距离，界面能和方向溶解的影响，小尺寸碳化物比大尺寸碳化物更易溶，