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Stainless Steels (General)
303
303 is an Austenitic stainless steel that has very good machinability but reduced formability. It is not recommended for any application involving welding and has a lower resistance to corrosion than 1.4301.
304 is an Austenitic stainless steel containing 18% chrome and 8% nickel. It has excellent welding and forming properties with useful resistance to corrosion. 304L is recommended for welding and machinability is reasonable.
316 is an Austenitic stainless steel with added molybdenum to improve corrosion resistance (better than 304) particularly in chloride environments. 316L is recommended for welding applications.
321 is a variation of the basic Austenitic stainless steel 1.4301 (304) with the addition of titanium as a stabiliser. It is resistant to inter-granular corrosion and can be easily welded and formed.
The addition of sulphur to this Martensitic stainless steel gives it the best machining properties of any stainless steel. However, this comes at the cost of reduced corrosion resistance, formability and weldability.
430 is a simple Ferritic stainless steel with good corrosion resistance. 430 is often used in chemical processing due to its particular resistance to nitric acid. Formability is good but it does not respond to heat treatment.
431 is a heat treatable Martensitic stainless steel that contains nickel. It has high tensile and torsional strength and is well suited to shaft manufacture. Welding of 431 is poor and it cannot be easily cold worked.
Grade 440C is capable of attaining, after heat treatment, the highest strength, hardness and wear resistance of all the stainless alloys. Its very high carbon content is responsible for these characteristics, which make 440C particularly suited to such applications as ball bearings and valve parts.
13-8 PH is a precipitation hardening stainless steel bar. It is an American aerospace grade, vacuum arc re-melted (type XM-13). This grade has very high strength and toughness, with good corrosion resistance and is generally used for aircraft structural components and in petrochemical industry.
15-5 PH is a precipitation hardening stainless steel bar. It is an American aerospace grade, vacuum arc re-melted or electro-slag refined (type XM-12). This grade has high strength and toughness, with good corrosion resistance and is generally used for aircraft and missile construction, chemical process equipment and nuclear reactor components.
17-4 PH is a precipitation hardening stainless steel bar. It is an American aerospace grade (type 630). This grade has high strength/toughness, good corrosion resistance and high fatigue resistance. 17-4 PH is generally used for aerospace equipment and missile components. The commercial grade is used in the oil and gas industries.
