Production of ferritic stainless steels containing zirconium

Claim 1

THE PROCESS OF MAKING A FULLY FERRITIC STAINLESS STEEL SLAB CHARACTERIZED BY ITS ABILITY TO RESIST SURFACE CRACKING DURING GRINDING AND THUS BE SUITABLE FOR ROLLING INTO STRIP CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF PREPARING A MELT OF STEEL CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF CARBON, NITROGEN, APPROXIMATELY 1% MAXIMUM MANGANESE AND SILICON, APPROXIMATELY 0.04% MAXIMUM PHOSPHORUS, APPROXIMATELY 0.03% MAXIMUM SULFUR, FERRITE FORMING ELEMENTS INCLUDING A MINIMUM OF APPROXIMATELY 16% CHROMIUM TO RENDER THE RESULTING STEEL FERRITIC AT ALL TEMPERATURES BELOW ITS MELTING POINT, ZIRCONIUM IN PERCENTAGE BY WEIGHT BETWEEN ABOUT SEVEN TIMES AND ABOUT FOURTEEN TIMES THE COMBINED CARBON AND NITROGEN PERCENTAGES BY WEIGHT TO EFFECTIVELY SUPRESS THE FORMATION OF CRACKS DURING SURFACE GRINDING OF A SLAB FORMED FROM THE MELT, BALANCE IRON, PROCESSING THE MELT INTO A SLAB, AND GRINDING AT LEAST ONE SURFACE THEREOF.