Stainless Steel 101

This paper presents a summary of the industry advances beyond T304 and T316 austenitic stainless steels. The greater availability of precipitation hardening and duplex stainless steels has increased the material pallet for designers and engineers. However, these materials vary widely in price and applicable fabrication practices. A working knowledge of stainless steel characteristics is required for the successful use of these materials.

The successful integration of stainless steel for architectural elements is challenging. There are well documented cost savings in maintenance with corrosion resistant materials when looked at over a building’s full lifecycle. High performance stainless steel alloys afford greater strength than traditional building materials. This results in aesthetic advantages to the designer, however the higher costs and difficulties in fabrication present challenges for the building team. New stainless alloys have been developed for use in other industries. Some of these alloys have advanced material properties that make them applicable in the construction marketplace. In order for these materials to be properly utilized, it is important to understand their benefits and drawbacks.

Building construction is not a primary consumer of stainless steel in the global marketplace. The metallurgical innovation going on today can be broadly classified as follows: the transportation sector desires stainless steel materials with higher strength at lower prices. The development of light, more fuel-efficient vehicles is responsible for innovations such as lean duplex stainless steels (high strength, lower cost). The oil and gas industry continues to press for materials that are extremely corrosion resistant for sour wells. The aerospace sector requires alloys that maintain their strength and corrosion resistance at very high temperatures. Our goal is to provide the reader with a better understanding of how to benefit from these innovations and illustrate the pitfalls/inefficiencies of simply specifying “stainless steel” in bidding documentation.