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Stainless steel is a popular steel for use in both vast architectural administrations and everyday applications, due to its strength, resistance, and reliability. Stainless steel is low maintenance due to its properties and longevity, and it’s recommended for use as it’s recyclable.

• Kitchenware. Stainless steel is popularly used for cookware, kitchen utensils, and cutlery. This is because it’s hardwearing and corrosion resistant, and it doesn’t affect the flavor of the food when used for food storage or production.
• Lighting.There are different grades of stainless steel, and there are two in particular that are popular for interior and exterior lighting products. Stainless steel 316 is marine-grade stainless steel, that contains Molybdenum.
• Medical. A common use of stainless steel is in the production of dental and surgical instruments. This type of material is used because of its corrosion resistance, but also because it is easy to sterilize.
• Architecture. As stainless steel is a strong, resistant metal, it’s commonly used in the construction of modern buildings; perhaps most famously, the Chrysler Building. It’s used for both interior and exterior design, from train stations to cooker tops and splashbacks.

Generally speaking, all variations of stainless steel are divided into one of four groups. In this edition of our blog, we present a short guide to these different groups.

• AUSTENITIC. This group contains the most common types of stainless steel. Austenitic stainless steels contain, as compared to other types, a high content of nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and chromium. Renowned for their high levels of malleability, strength, and corrosion resistance, austenitic steels are particularly versatile with many thousands of applications.
• FERRITIC. Carbon consistencies in ferritic stainless steel are low, usually not exceeding 0.1%. Primarily consisting of chromium but sometimes with additives such as molybdenum, ferritic stainless steels are magnetic and display excellent resistance to stress corrosion cracking.
• DUPLEX. Essentially a combination of austenitic and ferritic stainless steels, duplex is stronger than either. It is also extremely resistant to corrosion, making it the material of choice for a number of applications in offshore oil and gas facilities.
• MARTENSITIC. Though structurally similar to ferritic stainless steel, martensitic stainless steel contains much more carbon (around 1%). This difference in carbon percentage gives rise to the key difference: martensitic stainless steels can be hardened to a massive degree, imbuing them with extremely high strength.