Stainless Steels

Stainless steels are supplied in both a wide variety of different grades and product forms to suit an ever increasing list of applications.

Stainless Steels come in 5 main different groups being, Austenitic, Ferritic, Martensitic, Duplex and Precipitating Hardening (PH) with Austenitic Stainless steels the most common.

Austenitic Grades

Austenitic grades are those alloys which are commonly in use for stainless applications. The austenitic grades are not magnetic. The most common austenitic alloys are iron-chromium-nickel steels and are widely known as the 300 series. The austenitic stainless steels, because of their high chromium and nickel content, are the most corrosion resistant of the stainless group providing unusually fine mechanical properties. They cannot be hardened by heat treatment, but can be hardened significantly by cold-working.

  
Ferritic Grades

Ferritic grades have been developed to provide a group of stainless steels to resist corrosion and oxidation, while being highly resistant to stress corrosion cracking. These steels are magnetic but cannot be hardened or strengthened by heat treatment. They can be cold worked and softened by annealing. As a group, they are more corrosive resistant than the martensitic grades, but generally inferior to the austenitic grades. Like martensitic grades, these are straight chromium steels with no nickel. They are used for decorative trim, sinks, and automotive applications, particularly exhaust systems.

   
Martensitic Grades

Martensitic grades were developed in order to provide a group of stainless alloys that would be corrosion resistant and hardenable by heat treating. The martensitic grades are straight chromium steels containing no nickel. They are magnetic and can be hardened by heat treating. The martensitic grades are mainly used where hardness, strength, and wear resistance are required.

410S
420

Duplex Grades

Duplex grades are the newest of the stainless steels. This material is a combination of austenitic and ferritic material. This material has higher strength and superior resistance to stress corrosion cracking.

DUPLEX UNS S31803
DUPLEX UNS S32900
SUPER DUPLEX UNS S32550
SUPER DUPLEX UNS S32750
SUPER DUPLEX UNS S32760

Precipitation Hardening Grades

Precipitation hardening grades, as a class, offer the designer a unique combination of fabricability, strength, ease of heat treatment, and corrosion resistance not found in any other class of material. These grades include 17Cr-4Ni (17-4PH) and 15Cr-5Ni (15-5PH). The austenitic precipitation-hardenable alloys have, to a large extent, been replaced by the more sophisticated and higher strength superalloys. The martensitic precipitation-hardenable stainless steels are really the work horse of the family. While designed primarily as a material to be used for bar, rods, wire, forgings, etc., martensitic precipitation-hardenable alloys are beginning to find more use in the flat rolled form. While the semi-austenitic precipitation-hardenable stainless steels were primarily designed as a sheet and strip product, they have found many applications in other product forms. Developed primarily as aerospace materials, many of these steels are gaining commercial acceptance as truly cost-effective materials in many applications.

13-8 PH
15-5 PH
17-4 PH
17-7 PH

Click here for international comparison of grades.

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