Failure Analysis of 3Cr13 Stainless Steel Reed

A 3Cr13 stainless steel reed fractured after service for several hours.In order to find out the failure mode and cause, macro and micro observation on original and man-made fracture surfaces,energy spectrum analysis,and hardness testing were carried out.In addition,analysis of the man-made fracture surface and hardness testing of an intact reed was also carried out. The results show that inter-granular crack initiated due to stress corrosion,and then the crack propagated as a fatigue crack, resulting in the fracture.Keeping the parts away from corrosion media can effectively prevent the type of failure.