Search
Close this search box.

Which Stainless Steel is Most Corrosion Resistant?

In many industrial applications, stainless steel can provide today’s satisfactory corrosion resistance. According to experience in use, in addition to mechanical failure, the corrosion of stainless steel is mainly manifested in: a serious form of corrosion of stainless steel is localized corrosion (ie stress corrosion cracking, pitting corrosion, intergranular corrosion, corrosion fatigue, and crevice corrosion). The failure cases caused by these local corrosions accounted for almost half of the failure cases. Many failure accidents can be avoided through a reasonable selection of materials.


Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC): A general term that refers to the mutual failure of stress-bearing alloys due to the expansion of streaks in a corrosive environment. Stress corrosion cracking has a brittle fracture morphology, but it may also occur in materials with high toughness. The necessary condition for stress corrosion cracking is the existence of tensile stress (whether it is residual stress or applied stress, or both) and a specific corrosive medium. The formation and expansion of the pattern are roughly perpendicular to the direction of tensile stress. This stress value that causes stress corrosion cracking is much smaller than the stress value required for material fracture when there is no corrosive medium. Microscopically, the cracks passing through the grains are called transgranular cracks, and the cracks extending along the grain boundary are called intergranular cracks. When the stress corrosion cracking extends to a certain depth (here, the cross-section of the material under load When the stress reaches its breaking stress in the air), the material will be broken according to normal cracks (in ductile materials, usually through the aggregation of microscopic defects). Therefore, the section of the part that fails due to stress corrosion cracking will contain the characteristic area of ​​stress corrosion cracking and the “dimple” area associated with the aggregation of micro-defects.

Get it now:AISI 302 Stainless Steel   

AISI 304; AISI  301; AISI 316;AISI 316L…

 

Pitting corrosion: It is a form of localized corrosion that causes corrosion.


Intergranular corrosion: Grain boundaries are the boundary cities where the crystal grains with different crystallographic orientations are disordered and mixed. Therefore, they are advantageous for the segregation of various solute elements in steel or the precipitation of metal compounds (such as carbides and δ phase). District city. Therefore, in some corrosive media, it is not surprising that the grain boundaries may be corroded first. This type of corrosion is called intergranular corrosion. Most metals and alloys may exhibit intergranular corrosion in certain corrosive media.

Get it now:AISI 302 Stainless Steel   

Crevice corrosion: It is a form of local corrosion, which may occur in the crevice where the solution stagnates or on the shielded surface. Such gaps can be formed at the junction of metal and metal or metal and non-metal, for example, where rivets, bolts, gaskets, valve seats, loose surface deposits, and sea creatures meet.


General corrosion: It is a term used to describe the corrosion phenomenon that occurs on the entire alloy surface in a relatively uniform manner. When overall corrosion occurs, the material will gradually become thinner due to corrosion, and even the material will fail to corrode. Stainless steel may exhibit general corrosion in strong acids and alkalis. The failure problem caused by general corrosion is not very worrying, because this kind of corrosion can usually be predicted by a simple immersion test or by consulting the literature on corrosion.

Stainless Steel Chemical Composition – YAOYI Stainless Steel

When welding, the process of ventilating in advance and lagging should be adopted. The outer adhesive cloth is torn off by welding. Since the blocking plate is composed of rubber and tinplate, it is not easy to damage, so this welding method can guarantee the inside of the weld. It is filled with argon gas and its purity is ensured, to effectively ensure that the metal inside the weld is not oxidized, and the quality of the bottom weld of the weld is ensured.

Learn more about 316 Stianless Steel  

2. Corrosion Resistance of Various Stainless Steels

Aisi 304: is universal stainless steel, it is widely used to make equipment and parts that require good comprehensive performance (corrosion resistance and formability).


Aisi 301: Stainless steel exhibits obvious work hardening during deformation, and is used in various occasions requiring higher strength.


Aisi 302: Stainless steel is essentially a variant of 304 stainless steel with higher carbon content, which can be made to obtain higher strength through cold rolling.

Read more about 304 Stainless Steel Sheet: Technicalities, Features and Applications  

Aisi 302B: It is a kind of stainless steel with high silicon content, which has high resistance to high-temperature oxidation.

Aisi 303 and aisi 303Se: free-cutting stainless steel containing sulfur and selenium, respectively, used in occasions that mainly require free cutting and high surface gloss. 303Se stainless steel is also used to make parts that require hot upsetting because, under such conditions, this stainless steel has good hot workability.


Aisi 304L: It is a variant of 304 stainless steel with lower carbon content, used on occasions where welding is required. The lower carbon content minimizes the precipitation of carbides in the heat-affected zone near the weld, and the precipitation of carbides may cause stainless steel to produce intergranular corrosion (welding erosion) in certain environments.


Aisi 304N: is nitrogen-containing stainless steel. Nitrogen is added to increase the strength of the steel.


Aisi 305 and aisi 384: stainless steel contains high nickel, its work hardening rate is low, and it is suitable for various occasions that require high cold formability.


Aisi 308: Stainless steel is used to make electrodes.


Aisi 309, aisi 310, aisi 314, and aisi 330: the nickel and chromium content of stainless steel is relatively high, to improve the oxidation resistance and creep strength of steel at high temperatures. While 30S5 and 310S are variants of 309 and 310 stainless steel, the difference is that the carbon content is lower to minimize the carbides precipitated near the weld. 330 stainless steel has particularly high resistance to carburization and thermal shock resistance.

Try for free 304 Stainless Steel Pipe: Classification, Types and Applications  

Aisi 316 and aisi 317: type stainless steel contains aluminum, so its resistance to pitting corrosion in marine and chemical industrial environments is much better than that of 304 stainless steel. Among them, the 316 stainless steel variants include low-carbon stainless steel 316L, nitrogen-containing high-strength stainless steel 316N, and free-cutting stainless steel 316F with higher sulfur content.


Aisi 321, aisi 347, and aisi 348 are stainless steel stabilized with titanium, niobium plus tantalum, and niobium, respectively, and are suitable for welding components used at high temperatures. Aisi 348 is a kind of stainless steel suitable for the nuclear power industry and has certain restrictions on the combined amount of tantalum and drill.

Read my article on The reason why we can produce the perfect 301 Stainless Steel Strips? 

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold-formed_steel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_(metalworking)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rolled_Mild_Steel_Plates,_Sheets_and_Strip