From composition to form, a range of factors impact the characteristics of stainless steel products. One of the most important considerations is which grade of steel to use.
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This will determine a range of characteristics and, ultimately, both the cost and lifespan of your stainless steel products.
So how do you know where to start?
While every application is unique, these 7 questions highlight critical considerations to help you narrow down your options and find the grades best suited to your needs or application.
When you think of stainless steel, the first things that come to mind are probably resistance to acids and chlorides--such as those found in industrial applications or marine environments. However, temperature resistance is an important consideration as well.
If you need corrosion resistance, you&#;ll want to avoid ferritic and martensitic steels. Ideal stainless steel grades for corrosive environments include austenitic or duplex alloys such as grades 304, 304L, 316, 316L, , and 904L.
For high-temperature environments, austenitic grades are often best. Finding a grade with high chromium, silicon, nitrogen, and rare earth elements will further alter the steel&#;s ability to withstand high temperatures. Common grades for high-temperature environments include 310, S, and 446.
Austenitic steel grades are also ideal for low-temperature or cryogenic environments. For added resistance, you can look at low carbon or high nitrogen grades. Common grades for low-temperature environments include 304, 304LN, 310, 316, and 904L.
A steel with poor formability will become brittle if overworked and offer lower performance. In most cases, martensitic steels are not recommended. Furthermore, steel with low formability might not hold its shape when complex or intricate forming is required.
When choosing a steel grade, you&#;ll want to consider the form in which you&#;d like it delivered. Whether you want rods, slabs, bars or sheets will limit your options. For example, ferritic steels are often sold in sheets, martensitic steels are often sold in bars or slabs, and austenitic steels are available in the widest range of forms. Other steel grades available in a variety of forms include 304, 316, 430, , and 3CR12.
Machining isn&#;t typically a problem. However, work hardening can produce unintended results. The addition of sulfur can improve machinability but reduces formability, weldability and corrosion resistance.
This makes finding a balance between machinability and corrosion resistance a critical consideration for most multistage stainless steel fabrication processes. Depending on your needs, grades 303, 416, 430, and 3CR12 offer a good balance from which to narrow options further.
Welding stainless steel can lead to trouble&#;including hot cracking, stress corrosion cracking, and intergranular corrosion&#;depending on the grade of steel used. If you plan to weld your stainless steel, austenitic alloys are ideal.
Low carbon grades can further help with weldability while additives, such as niobium, can stabilize alloys to avoid corrosion concerns. Popular grades of stainless steel for welding include 304L, 316, 347, 430, 439 and 3CR12.
If your application requires heat treatment, you must consider how the various grades of steel respond. The final characteristics of certain steels are drastically different before and after heat treatment.
In most cases, martensitic and precipitation hardening steels, such as 440C or 17-4 PH, offer the best performance when heat treated. Many austenitic and ferritic stainless steels are non-hardenable once heat treated and therefore are not ideal options.
Steel strength is an essential factor to consider to maximize safety. Yet, overcompensating can lead to unneeded cost, weight, and other wasteful factors. Strength characteristics are loosely set by the family of steel with further variations available in different grades.
For example:
All of the previous considerations feed into the most important question in choosing a stainless steel grade&#;lifetime cost. Matching the stainless steel grades to your intended environment, usage and requirements, you can ensure long-lasting performance and exceptional value.
Take care to analyze how the steel will perform over the intended period of use and what costs might be involved in maintenance or replacement before deciding. Limiting costs upfront might result in far more spending over the life of your project, product, structure, or other application.
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Of course, if the initial price is too great, you might need to make compromises. Finding a balance is essential to both short-term and long-term success. But by considering these seven points, you&#;re eliminating potential hazards and setting the foundation for choosing the optimal solution for your needs.
With the sheer number of stainless steel grades and forms available, having an expert to help highlight options and potential pitfalls is an excellent way to ensure you&#;re getting optimal value for stainless steel investment. As a leading provider of stainless steel across Canada for more than 4 decades, Unified Alloys will leverage our experience to help guide you through the purchasing process. View our extensive list of stainless products online or call to discuss your needs with a member of our team.
One of the most important considerations that a manufacturer or product designer will need to address is whether or not the materials they use can be magnetic. Unfortunately, this is frequently a question that is postponed until the last minute, or which is ignored altogether. This can often be a mistake, and we recommend anyone working with stainless steel should proactively determine whether their application requires a magnetic or non-magnetic metal.
This is especially true with stainless steel because the answer to the above question is that some stainless steels are magnetic and some or not, which allows designers tremendous flexibility when picking out stainless steel. It also means that it&#;s necessary to pay close attention to the particular needs of your application and to choose a stainless steel alloy that meets your specifications.
The experienced and professional team at Clinton Aluminum is happy to help you weigh the different benefits of various stainless steel alloys so that you can make the best possible decision in terms of material selection. Contact us today to learn more.
In order to know whether a stainless steel alloy is magnetic or not, it&#;s first necessary to know what class of stainless steel it belongs to. Broadly speaking, there are five main families of stainless steel. Of these, the most popular is known as austenitic stainless steel, and the alloying materials primarily consist of chromium and nickel, which gives this family a strong corrosion resistance. The 200 and 300 series of grades are primarily austenitic.
The next most popular class is known as ferritic stainless steel, and these alloys have molybdenum, aluminum, and/or titanium added in addition to chromium and nickel. The combination of alloying elements gives the stainless steel greater ductility and resistance to stress corrosion cracking. Ferritic alloys mainly fall under the 400 series of stainless steels.
Martensitic is another class of stainless steel, and because they also fall into the 400 series of alloys, there is a number of similarities with ferritic stainless steels. In fact, you have to look at the molecular level to tell them apart, where they can be distinguished by the increased carbon content and reduced chromium of martensitic steels.
A special category of stainless steels, known as precipitation-hardening, has aluminum, copper, and titanium as alloying agents. In order to produce these alloys, the metal must undergo a solution and aging heat treatment that provides it with a higher tensile strength compared to the other classes.
That brings us to duplex stainless steel, which is the newest of the five classes. These alloys combine the properties of ferritic and austenitic alloys, hence the name. They are made up of 24% chromium and 5% nickel, providing for increased yield strength and improved stress corrosion resistance, especially when it comes to chloride environments.
In manufacturing and metalworking, the term ferromagnetic refers to materials that are strongly attracted to a magnet. In general, this is what is meant when people say that something is magnetic. Furthermore, the term magnetic permeability indicates the ease by which a magnetic material can be magnetized, with a numeral value close to 1.0 meaning that the material in question is non-magnetic.
If magnetism is an issue for your application, then it is important to distinguish not just whether a metal is magnetic, but how magnetic it is, and how it will respond to exposure to magnets. For example, you need to know whether a metal is &#;Hard&#; or &#;Soft&#; in terms of its magnetism. When a material is classified as hard magnetic, it will retain some amount of residual magnetism following exposure to a magnetic field. On the other hand, soft magnetic material will revert to low residual magnetism after exposure.
Since all of the most common carbon steels, low alloy steels, and tool steels are magnetic, it would be easy to assume that all stainless steel grades are magnetic as well. This is not the case. As a general rule, the Austenitic stainless steels, which include the 300-series of Chromium-Nickel alloys, but also the 200-series Chromim-Manganese-Nickel alloys, are non-magnetic.
Many of the wrought austenitic stainless steels will contain some amount of ferrite, but most of the time there is not enough to alter the magnetic performance of the alloy. However, in applications where even a slight magnetic sensitivity could have an effect, then these particular alloys should be avoided.
The remaining stainless steels grades are all magnetic. This includes the ferritic grades, duplex grades, martensitic grades, and precipitation hardening grades. Even though the duplex grades are a mixture of austenite and ferrite stainless steels, they retain the ability to attract a magnet.
Finally, austenitic stainless steel castings have a different chemical composition than wrought stainless steels. In order to prevent hot cracking during casting, a small amount of ferrite will be added. Certain austenitic welds will have between 4% to 8% ferrite for this reason. This will add to the finished metal&#;s magnetic properties. If magnetism is an important concern and even a small amount is to be avoided, it&#;s possible to find ferrite-free castings, as they are produced under special circumstances for certain specific corrosive environments.
There is a lot more nuance when it comes to the magnetic properties than can be covered in a single article. That&#;s why it&#;s essential that manufacturers and designers take into consideration what magnetic properties are most desirable for their application and choose the right material accordingly.
Magnetism is a complicated but often overlooked factor when it comes to production. Manufacturers who are concerned about the magnetic properties of the materials they are using should consult with knowledgeable partners who have a deep understanding of the science involved. At Clinton Aluminum, our priority is to help our customers make the best purchasing decisions they possibly can. For this reason, we strive to be true partners that can help you through every step of the production process.
Contact us today to speak with one of our professional and friendly representatives.
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