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Stainless Steel
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Background
Stainless steel is an iron-containing alloy—a substance made up of two or
more chemical elements—used in a wide range of applications. It has
excellent resistance to stain or rust due to its chromium content, usually
from 12 to 20 percent of the alloy. There are more than 57 stainless steels
recognized as standard alloys, in addition to many proprietary alloys
produced by different stainless steel producers. These many types of
steels are used in an almost endless number of applications and
industries: bulk materials handling equipment, building exteriors and
roofing, automobile (../Volume-1/Automobile.html) components (exhaust,
trim/decorative, engine, chassis, fasteners, tubing for fuel lines), chemical
processing plants (scrubbers and heat exchangers), pulp and paper
manufacturing, petroleum refining, water supply piping, consumer
products, marine and shipbuilding, pollution control, sporting goods (snow
skis), and transportation (rail cars), to name just a few.
About 200,000 tons of nickel-containing stainless steel is used each year
by the food processing industry in North America. It is used in a variety of
food handling, storing, cooking, and serving equipment—from the
beginning of the food collection process through to the end. Beverages
such as milk, wine, beer, soft drinks and fruit juice are processed in
stainless steel equipment. Stainless steel is also used in commercial
cookers, pasteurizers, transfer bins, and other specialized equipment.
Advantages include easy cleaning, good corrosion resistance, durability,
economy, food flavor protection, and sanitary design. According to the U.S.
Department of Commerce, 1992 shipments of all stainless steel totaled
1,514,222 tons.
Stainless steels come in several types depending on their microstructure.
Austenitic stainless steels contain at least 6 percent nickel and austenite—
carbon-containing iron with a face-centered cubic structure—and have
good corrosion resistance and high ductility (the ability of the material to
bend without breaking). Ferritic stainless steels (ferrite has a body-
centered cubic structure) have better resistance to stress corrosion than
austenitic, but they are difficult to weld. Martensitic stainless steels
contain iron having a needle-like structure.
Duplex stainless steels, which generally contain equal amounts of ferrite
and austenite, provide better resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion in
most environments. They also have superior resistance to cracking due to
chloride stress corrosion, and they are about twice as strong as the
common austenitics. Therefore, duplex stainless steels are widely used in
the chemical industry in refineries, gas-processing plants, pulp and paper
plants, and sea water piping installations.
Raw Materials
Stainless steels are made of some of the basic elements found in the
earth: iron ore, chromium, silicon, nickel, carbon, nitrogen, and manganese.
Properties of the final alloy are tailored by varying the amounts of these
elements. Nitrogen, for instance, improves tensile properties like ductility.
It also improves corrosion resistance, which makes it valuable for use in
duplex stainless steels.
The Manufacturing
Process
The manufacture of stainless steel involves a series of processes. First,
the steel is melted,
To make stainless steel, the raw materials—iron ore, chromium, silicon, nickel,
etc.—are melted together in an electric furnace. This step usually involves 8 to
12 hours of intense heat. Next, the mixture is cast into one of several shapes,
including blooms, billets, and slabs.
and then it is cast into solid form. After various forming steps, the steel is
heat treated and then cleaned and polished to give it the desired finish.
Next, it is packaged and sent to manufacturers, who weld and join the
steel to produce the desired shapes.
Melting and casting
1 The raw materials are first melted together in an electric furnace. This
step usually requires 8 to 12 hours of intense heat. When the melting is
finished, the molten steel is cast into semi-finished forms. These include
blooms (rectangular shapes), billets (round or square shapes 1.5 inches or
3.8 centimeters in thickness), slabs, rods, and tube rounds.
Forming
2 Next, the semi-finished steel goes through forming operations, beginning
with hot rolling, in which the steel is heated and passed through huge rolls.
Blooms and billets are formed into bar and wire, while slabs are formed
into plate, strip, and sheet. Bars are available in all grades and come in
rounds, squares, octagons, or hexagons 0.25 inch (.63 centimeter) in size.
Wire is usually available up to 0.5 inch (1.27 centimeters) in diameter or
size. Plate is more than 0.1875 inch (.47 centimeter) thick and over 10
inches (25.4 centimeters) wide. Strip is less than 0.185 inch (.47
centimeter) thick and less than 24 inches (61 centimeters) wide. Sheet is
less than 0.1875 (.47 centimeter) thick and more than 24 (61 centimeters)
wide.
Heat treatment
3 After the stainless steel is formed, most types must go through an
annealing step. Annealing is a heat treatment in which the steel is heated
and cooled under controlled conditions to relieve internal stresses and
soften the metal. Some steels are heat treated for higher strength.
However, such a heat treatment—also known as age hardening —requires
careful control, for even small changes from the recommended
temperature, time, or cooling rate can seriously affect the properties.
Lower aging temperatures produce high strength with low fracture
toughness, while higher-temperature aging produces a lower strength,
tougher material.
Though the heating rate to reach the aging temperature (900 to 1000
degrees Fahrenheit or 482 to 537 degrees Celsius) does not effect the
properties, the cooling rate does. A post-aging quenching (rapid cooling)
treatment can increase the toughness without a significant loss in
strength. One such process involves water quenching the material in a 35-
degree Fahrenheit (1.6-degree Celsius) ice-water bath for a minimum of
two hours.
The type of heat treatment depends on the type of steel; in other words,
whether it is austenitic, ferritic, or martensitic. Austenitic steels are heated
to above 1900 degrees Fahrenheit (1037 degrees Celsius) for a time
depending on the thickness. Water quenching is used for thick sections,
whereas air cooling or air blasting is used for thin sections. If cooled too
slowly, carbide precipitation can occur. This buildup can be eliminated by
thermal stabilization. In this method, the steel is held for several hours at
1500 to 1600 degrees Fahrenheit (815 to 871 degrees Celsius). Cleaning
part surfaces of contaminants before heat treatment is sometimes also
necessary to achieve proper heat treatment.
Descaling
4 Annealing causes a scale or build-up to form on the steel. The scale can
be removed using several processes. One of the most common methods,
pickling, uses a nitric-hydrofluoric acid bath to descale the steel. In another
method, electrocleaning, an electric current is applied to the surface using
a cathode and phosphoric acid, and the scale is removed. The annealing
and descaling steps occur at different stages depending on the type of
steel being worked. Bar and wire, for instance, go through further forming
steps (more hot rolling, forging, or extruding) after the initial hot rolling
before being annealed and descaled. Sheet and strip, on the other hand, go
through an initial annealing and descaling step immediately after hot
rolling. After cold rolling (passing through rolls at a relatively low
temperature), which produces a further reduction in thickness, sheet and
strip are annealed and descaled again. A final cold rolling step then
prepares the steel for final processing.
Cutting
5 Cutting operations are usually necessary to obtain the desired blank
shape or size to trim the part to final size. Mechanical cutting is
accomplished by a variety of methods, including straight shearing using
guillotine knives, circle shearing using circular knives horizontally and
vertically positioned, sawing using high speed steel blades, blanking, and
nibbling. Blanking uses metal punches and dies to punch out the shape by
shearing. Nibbling is a process of cutting by blanking out a series of
overlapping holes and is ideally suited for irregular shapes.
Stainless steel can also be cut using flame cutting, which involves a flame-
fired torch using oxygen and propane in conjunction with iron powder. This
method is clean and fast. Another cutting method is known as plasma jet
cutting, in which an ionized gas column in conjunction with an electric arc
through a small orifice makes the cut. The gas produces extremely high
temperatures to melt the metal.
Finishing
6 Surface finish is an important specification for stainless steel products
and is critical in applications where appearance is also important. Certain
surface finishes also make stainless steel easier to clean, which is
obviously important for sanitary applications. A smooth surface as
obtained by polishing also provides better corrosion resistance. On the
other hand, rough finishes are often required for lubrication applications,
as well as to facilitate further manufacturing steps.
Surface finishes are the result of processes used in fabricating the various
forms or are the result of further processing. There are a variety of
methods used for finishing. A dull finish is produced by hot rolling,
annealing, and descaling. A bright finish is obtained by first hot rolling and
then cold rolling on polished rolls. A highly reflective finish is produced by
cold rolling in combination with annealing in a controlled atmosphere
furnace, by grinding with abrasives, or by buffing a finely ground surface. A
mirror finish is produced by polishing with progressively finer abrasives,
followed by extensive buffing. For grinding or polishing, grinding wheels or
abrasive belts are normally used. Buffing uses cloth wheels in combination
with cutting compounds containing very fine abrasive particles in bar or
stick forms. Other finishing methods include tumbling, which forces
The initial steel shapes—blooms, billets, slabs, etc.—are hot rolled into bar, wire,
sheet, strip, and plate. Depending on the form, the steel then undergoes further
rolling steps (both hot and cold rolling), heat treatment (annealing), descaling
Ito remove buildup), and polishing to produce the finished stainless steel. The
steel is then sent the end user.
movement of a tumbling material against surfaces of parts, dry etching
(sandblasting), wet etching using acid solutions, and surface dulling. The
latter uses sandblasting, wire brushing, or pickling techniques.
Manufacturing at the fabricator or
end user
7 After the stainless steel in its various forms are packed and shipped to
the fabricator or end user, a variety of other processes are needed. Further
shaping is accomplished using a variety of methods, such as roll forming,
press forming, forging, press drawing, and extrusion. Additional heat
treating (annealing), machining, and cleaning processes are also often
required.
There are a variety of methods for joining stainless steel, with welding
being the most common. Fusion and resistance welding are the two basic
methods generally used with many variations for both. In fusion welding,
heat is provided by an electric arc struck between an electrode and the
metal to be welded. In resistance welding, bonding is the result of heat and
pressure. Heat is produced by the resistance to the flow of electric current
through the parts to be welded, and pressure is applied by the electrodes.
After parts are welded together, they must be cleaned around the joined
area.
Quality Control
In addition to in-process control during manufacture and fabrication,
stainless steels must meet specifications developed by the American
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) with regard to mechanical
properties such as toughness and corrosion resistance. Metallography can
sometimes be correlated to corrosion tests to help monitor quality.
The Future
Use of stainless and super stainless steels is expanding in a variety of
markets. To meet the requirements of the new Clean Air Act, coal-fired
power plants are installing stainless steel stack liners. Other new industrial
applications include secondary heat exchangers for high-efficiency home
furnaces, service-water piping in nuclear power plants, ballast tanks and
fire-suppression systems for offshore drilling platforms, flexible pipe for oil
and gas distribution systems, and heliostats for solar-energy plants.
Environmental legislation is also forcing the petrochemical and refinery
industries to recycle secondary cooling water in closed systems rather
than simply discharge it. Reuse results in cooling water with elevated
levels of chloride, resulting in pitting-corrosion problems. Duplex stainless
steel tubing will play an increasingly important role in solving such
industrial corrosion problems, since it costs less than other materials.
Manufacturers are developing highly corrosion-resistant steels in respond
to this demand.
In the automotive industry, one steel manufacturer has estimated that
stainless-steel usage per vehicle will increase from 55 to 66 pounds (25 to
30 kilograms) to more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms) by the turn of the
century. New applications include metallic substrates for catalytic
converters, air bag (../Volume-1/Air-Bag.html) components, composite
bumpers, fuel line and other fuel-system parts compatible with alternate
fuels, brake lines, and long-life exhaust systems.
With improvements in process technology, superaustenitic stainless steels
(with nitrogen contents up to 0.5 percent) are being developed. These
steels are used in pulp-mill bleach plants, sea water and phosphoric-acid
handling systems, scrubbers, offshore platforms, and other highly
corrosive applications. A number of manufacturers have begun marketing
such materials in sheet, plate, and other forms. Other new compositions
are being developed: ferritic iron-base alloys containing 8 and 12 percent
Cr for magnetic applications, and austenitic stainless with extra low sulfur
content for parts used in the manufacture of semiconductors and
pharmaceuticals.
Research will continue to develop improved and unique materials. For
instance, Japanese researchers have recently developed several. One is a
corrosion-resistant stainless steel that displays the shape-memory effect.
This type of material returns to its original shape upon heating after being
plastically deformed. Potential applications include assembly components
(pipe fittings, clips, fasteners, clamps), temperature sensing (circuit
breakers and fire alarms), and springs. An improved martensitic stainless
steel has also been developed for precision miniature and instrument
rolling-contact bearings, which has reduced vibration levels, improved life
expectancy, and better surface finish compared to conventional materials.
Where To Learn More
Books
Cleaning and Descaling Stainless Steels. American Iron and Steel Institute,
1982.
Finishes for Stainless Steel. American Iron and Steel Institute, June, 1983.
Llewellyn, D. T. Steels: Metallurgy & Applications. Butterworth-Heinemann,
1992.
MacMillan, Angus, ed. The Steel-Alloying Handbook. Elkay Publishing
Services, 1993.
Stainless Steel & Heat Resisting Steels. Iron & Steel Society, Inc., 1990.
Periodicals
Davison, Ralph M. and James D. Redmond. "Practical Guide to Using
Duplex Stainless Steels." Materials Performance. January, 1990, pp. 57-62.
Hasimoto, Misao. "Combined Deposition Processes Create New
Composites." Research & Development. October, 1989.
Tuthill, Arthur and Richard Avery. "Specifying Stainless Steel Surface
Treatments." Advanced Materials & Processes. December, 1992, pp. 34-38.
— L. S. Millberg
