Stainless Steel is a steel alloy that must contain a minimum of 10.5% chromin and contains levels of nickel, molybdenum and niobium. Compared to regular steel, stainless steel is immune to rusting and ordinary corrosion. Stainless steel has a unique self-healing property. Due to the alloying elements used a thin transparent layer is formed on the surface. In case the surface is scratched or damaged otherwise, this thin layer which is only a few atoms thick immediately rebuilds with the assistance for the air to water. This is the reason why stainless steel does not require a coating or other corrosion protection to remain bright and shiny even after decades of use.
Austenitic stainless 316L
Austenitic stainless steel is non-magnetic and have high corrosion resistance. They can be hardened only by cold working not by heat treatment. They are highly formable, but they are prone to stress corrosion cracking 310L, 314L and 316L have high corrosion resistance than the straight types. Austenitic stainless steel is used in shafts, valves bolts bushing nut aircraft fitting, chemical equipment, food processing equipment brewing equipment cryogenic vessels.
316 is an austenitic chromiumnickel stainless steel containing molybdenum. This addition increases general corrosion resistance, improves resistance to pitting from chloride ion solutions, and provides increased strength at elevated temperatures. Properties are similar to those of 304 except that this alloy is somewhat stronger at elevated temperatures. Corrosion resistance is improved, particularly against sulfuric, hydrochloric, acetic, formic and tartaric acids; acid sulfates and alkaline chlorides. 316L is an extra-low carbon version of 316L that minimizes harmful carbide precipitation due to welding. Typical uses include exhaust manifolds, furnace parts, heat exchangers, jet engine parts, pharmaceutical and photographic equipment, valve and pump trim, chemical equipment, digesters, tanks, evaporators, pulp, paper and textile processing equipment, parts exposed to marine atmospheres and tubing. 316L is used extensively for weldments where its immunity to carbide precipitation due to welding assures optimum corrosion resistance.
Ferritic Stainless Steel 430
Ferritic Stainless Steel is magnetic. They have a lower corrosion resistance than the austenitic grades, but they offer high resistance to stress corrosion cracking. They are hardened by cold working and are not heat treated. Stainless steel sheets 430 can be used in kitchen fabrication.
430 is one of the most widely used of the “non-hardenable” ferritic stainless steels. It combines good corrosion resistance and heat and oxidation resistance up to 1500°F (816°C) with good mechanical properties. Typical consumer product applications include automotive trim and molding, furnace combustion chambers, dishwashers, range hoods, gas burners on heating units, gutters and downspouts, steam iron bases and flatware. Industrial and commercial applications range from interior architectural applications to nitric acid plant equipment, oil refinery equipment, roofing and siding and restaurant equipment.
Duplex Stainless Steel
This is a mixture of austenitic and ferritic. They provide higher corrosion resistance than the austenitic stainless steel. They have higher strength than authentic grades. Typical applications are water treatment plants and heat exchanger components.
Iron and the most common iron alloy steel are from a corrosion viewpoint relatively poor materials since they rust in air, corrode in acids and scale in furnace atmosphere. In spite of this there is a group of iron-base alloys, the iron-chromium-nickel alloy known a stainless steel, which do not rust in sea water, are resistant to concentrate acids which do not scale at temperature up to 1100.
It is this largely unique universal usefulness, in combination with good mechanical properties and manufacturing characteristics, which gives the stainless steels their raison d’être and makes them an indispensable tool for the designer. The usage of stainless steel is small compared with that of carbon steels but exhibits a steady growth, in contrast to the constructional steels. Stainless steels as a group is perhaps more heterogeneous than the constructional steels, and their properties are in many cases relatively unfamiliar to the designer. In some ways stainless steels are an unexplored world but to take advantage of these materials will require an increased understanding of their basic properties.
Steel is unquestionably the primary industrial constructional material. The dominant product form for stainless steel is cold rolled sheet. The other products individually form only a third or less of the total amount of cold rolled sheet. Usage is dominated by a few major areas consumer product, equipment for oil and gas industry the chemical process industry and the food and beverage industry.
Please find attached our weight charts for our sheets.