The invention relates to a method for producing a steel material, particularly a corrosion-resistant steel material for pumps and similar, in which a steel corresponding to the following analysis (in wt. %) is smelted: C<0.050; Si<0.70; Mn<1.00; P<0.030; S<0.010; Cr=14-15.50; Mo=0.30-0.60; Ni=4.50-5.50; V<0.20; W<0.20; Cu=2.50-4.00; Co<0.30; Ti<0.05; Al<0.05; Nb<0.05; Ta<0.05; N<0.05.

An air conditioner including an outdoor unit having a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, a main expansion device, and a refrigerant pipe configured to connect the outdoor heat exchanger to the main expansion device; an indoor unit having an indoor heat exchanger; and a connection pipe configured to connect the outdoor unit to the indoor unit, wherein the air conditioner has refrigeration capacity of 2 kW to 7 kW, a R134a is used as the refrigerant, the refrigerant pipe is made of a ductile stainless steel material having a delta ferrite matrix structure of 1% or less on the basis of a grain area, and the refrigerant pipe includes a suction pipe that guides suction of a refrigerant into the compressor and has an outer diameter of 12.70 mm.

Provided is a high-strength steel sheet including: 0.12% to less than 0.17% of carbon (C), 0.3% to 0.8% of silicon (Si), 2.5% to 3.0% of manganese (Mn), 0.4% to 1.1% of chromium (Cr), 0.01% to 0.3% of aluminum (Al), 0.01% to 0.03% of niobium (Nb), 0.01% to 0.03% of titanium (Ti), 0.001% to 0.003% of boron (B), 0.04% or less of phosphorus (P), 0.01% or less of sulfur (S): 0.01% or less of nitrogen (N), and a balance of iron (Fe) and inevitable impurities. The contents of C, Si, and Al satisfy: [C]+[Si]+[Al])/5≤0.35 wt. A microstructure includes more than 1% to 4% or less of retained austenite, more than 10% to 20% or less of fresh martensite, 5% or less (excluding 0%) of ferrite, more than 50% to 70% or less of tempered martensite, and a balance of bainite.

The present invention provides a high-strength steel sheet, which can be used in various applications including automobile parts and exhibits excellent collision safety and excellent moldability, and a method for manufacturing the high-strength steel sheet. The high-strength steel sheet according to an aspect of the present invention satisfies a predetermined chemical composition and has a metallographic microstructure having ferrite fraction: 0% to 10%, MA fraction: 0% to 30%, hard phase other than ferrite and MA: 70% to 100% in terms of area proportion and retained austenite fraction: 5% to 30% in terms of volume proportion, and in the high-strength steel sheet, the skewness of IQ as analyzed by the EBRD method is −1.2 to −0.3 when the skewness is expressed by a predetermined relational expression in a case where crystal grains having a bcc structure and a bct structure are regarded as an aggregation of regions having an area of 0.05 μm.sup.2.

A stainless steel seamless pipe having high strength and excellent corrosion resistance, and a method for producing the same. The stainless steel seamless pipe has a specified composition and satisfies a predetermined formula. The stainless steel seamless pipe has a microstructure containing at least 30% martensitic phase, at most 60% ferrite phase, and at most 40% retained austenite phase by volume, the stainless steel seamless pipe having a yield strength of 758 MPa or more.

A stainless steel seamless pipe is provided that is a stainless steel comprising, in mass %, Cr: 11.5 to 35.0%, and Mo: 0.5 to 6.0%, and including ferrite and austenite, the stainless steel seamless pipe having a ferrite grain boundary and/or a ferrite-austenite grain boundary with a Mo concentration (mass %) that is at most 4.0 times the intragranular Mo concentration (mass %) of ferrite, or an austenite grain boundary with a Mo concentration (mass %) that is at most 4.0 times the intragranular Mo concentration (mass %) of austenite, the stainless steel seamless pipe having an axial tensile yield strength of 689 MPa or more, and an axial compressive yield strength/axial tensile yield strength ratio of 0.85 to 1.15.

A stainless steel pipe of a predetermined composition is provided that comprises N, Ti, Al, V, and Nb so as to satisfy the predetermined formula, the stainless steel pipe having an axial tensile yield strength of 757 MPa or more, an axial compressive yield strength/axial tensile yield strength ratio of 0.85 to 1.15, and a microstructure that is 20 to 80% ferrite phase by volume with the remainder containing an austenite phase, the stainless steel pipe having pipe end portions at least one of which has a fastening portion for an external thread or an internal thread, and having a curvature radius of 0.2 mm or more for a corner R formed by a bottom surface of a thread root and a pressure-side flank surface of the thread, measured in an axial plane section of the fastening portion.

A shield covers a predetermined region of a plate workpiece during tempering of the plate workpiece in a furnace in which the shield and the workpiece are subjected to an austenitization temperature while the predetermined region of the plate is shielded by the shield against heat. The shield has at least one first shield part shaped to cover at least some of the predetermined region of the workpiece, at least one second shield part, and a fastener or the like securing the second part movably relative to or removable from the first part such that the first and second parts together achieve an optimum shape fully covering and shielding the predetermined region of the plate workpiece.

A heating station (1) for heating a metal sheet blank (50) and a system comprising such a heating station (1), is herein disclosed. In particular, the heating station comprises lower or upper heating elements (11) arranged in a heating chamber (10) below a metal sheet blank (50) when in a heating position, and configured to provide radiation heating towards the metal sheet blank (50), and a lower mask (14) arranged to block radiation heating from reaching at least a first portion of the metal sheet blank (50), wherein the lower mask (14) comprises a plurality of support projections (14d) projecting from a main surface (14a) of the lower mask (14) towards the metal sheet blank (50) when in a heating position, which support projections (14d) are configured to support a metal sheet blank (50) during heating thereof.

A heat treated cold rolled steel sheet having a composition comprising of the following elements, 0.1%≤Carbon≤0.25, 2.15%≤Manganese≤3.0%, 1%≤Silicon≤0.8%, 0.1%≤Aluminum≤0.9%, 0.05%≤Chromium≤0.5%, 0%≤, Phosphorus≤0.09%, 0%≤Sulfur≤0.09%, 0%≤Nitrogen≤0.09%, 2.4%≤C+Mn≤3%, 0%≤Niobium≤0.1%, 0% ≤Titanium≤0.1%, 0%≤Vanadium≤0.1%, 0%≤Molybdenum≤1%, 0%≤Nickel≤1%, 0%≤Calcium≤0.005%, 0%≤Boron≤0.01%, 0%≤Cerium≤0.1%, 0%≤Magnesium≤0.05%, 0%≤Zirconium≤0.05% the remainder being composed of iron and unavoidable impurities, the microstructure of said steel sheet including, 20% to 70% Martensite, 5 to 60% of Inter-critical Ferrite, 5 to 30% of Transformed Ferrite, 8% to 20% of Residual Austenite and 1 to 20% Bainite, wherein the cumulated amount of Inter-critical and Transformed Ferrite is between 15% and 65%.