The many unique benefits of stainless steel make it a powerful candidate in materials selection. Engineers, specifiers, and designers often underestimate or overlook these values because of what is viewed as the higher initial cost of stainless steel. However, over the total life of a project, stainless is often the best value option.

What is Stainless Steel?

Stainless steel is essentially low-carbon steel that contains chromium at 10% or more by weight. It is the addition of chromium that gives the steel its unique stainless, corrosion-resisting properties. The chromium content of the steel allows the formation of a tough, adherent, invisible, corrosion-resisting chromium oxide film on the steel surface. If damaged mechanically or chemically, this film is self-healing, provided that oxygen, even in very small amounts, is present. The corrosion resistance and other useful properties of the steel are enhanced by increased chromium content and the addition of other elements such as molybdenum, nickel, and nitrogen. There are more than 60 grades of stainless steel. However, the entire group can be divided into four classes. Each is identified by the alloying elements which affect their microstructure and for which each is named.

Stainless Steel Grades and Applications

400 Series Martensitic – Typical grade: 410 Straight chromium (12 – 18%); magnetic and can be hardened by heat treatment. Typical use: Fasteners, pump shafts.

400 Series Ferritic – Typical grade: 430 Straight chromium (12 – 18%); low carbon, magnetic, but not heat treatable. Typical use: Appliance trim, cooking utensils.

300 Series Austenitic – Typical grade: 304 Chromium (17 – 25%), Nickel (8 – 25%); nonmagnetic, not heat treatable. Can develop high strength by cold working. Additions of molybdenum (up to 7%) can increase the corrosion resistance. Typical use: Food equipment, chemical equipment, architectural applications.

Precipitation Hardening – Typical grade: 17-4 Chromium (12 – 28%), Nickel (4 – 7%); martensitic or austenitic. Develop strength by precipitation harden reaction during heat treatment. Typical use: valves, gears, petrochemical equipment.

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The Many Benefits of Stainless Steel

Corrosion Resistance – Chromium is the alloying element that imparts to Stainless Steel their corrosion-resistant qualities. Lower alloyed grades resist corrosion in atmospheric and pure water environments; high-alloyed grades can resist corrosion in most acids, alkaline solutions, and chlorine bearing environments making their properties useful in process plants.

Fire and Heat Resistance – Special high chromium and nickel-alloyed grades resist scaling and retain high strength at high temperatures. Stainless Steel is used extensively in heat exchangers, super-heaters, boilers, feedwater heaters, valves, and mainstream lines as well as aircraft and aerospace applications.  Stainless steel has a high melting point, which means it can withstand elevated temperatures without melting or deforming. (The specific melting point depends on the alloy composition)

Hygiene – Stainless steel tubing has a smooth, non-porous surface that is easy to clean and maintain. It is commonly used in critical applications such as food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, and cleanroom environments.  Its corrosion resistance further enhances its longevity, making it an essential component in industries where hygiene, precision, and sterility are non-negotiable.

Aesthetic Appearance – The bright easily maintained surface of stainless steel provides a modern and attractive appearance.  The availability of various finishes, including brushed, polished, and satin, provides designers with versatility to achieve specific aesthetic effects, ensuring stainless steel tubing’s enduring appeal in a wide range of applications.

Strength-to-Weight Advantage – The work-hardening property of austenitic grades results in a significant strengthening of the material from cold-working alone, and the high strength duplex grades, allow reduced material thickness over conventional grades yielding considerable cost savings.  The high strength of stainless steel tubing allows engineers and designers to create robust and durable structures and components while minimizing overall weight.

Ease of Fabrication – Stainless steel has excellent formability and machinability.  Its versatility allows for various fabrication methods, including cutting, welding, bending, and forming, making it a preferred material in many industries for creating a wide range of products and structures.  It is indispensable in medical applications, where precision, hygiene, and longevity are paramount.

Impact Resistance – The austenitic microstructure of the 300 series provides high toughness at elevated temperatures ranging far below freezing, making these steels particularly suited to cryogenic applications. Thicker-walled tubing tends to exhibit greater resistance to impact, especially when designed to efficiently distribute stress. This is important for applications where the material needs to withstand forces and shocks without failing or deforming, ensuring the overall reliability and durability of the system.

Long-Term Value – In considering total cost, it is appropriate to consider material and production cost AND the life cycle cost. When the total life cycle costs are considered, stainless is often the least expensive material option. The cost-saving benefit of a maintenance-free product having a long life expectancy.  It has a longer lifespan compared to carbon steel, which can corrode and degrade more rapidly under certain conditions.

100% Recyclable – Over 50% of new stainless comes from old remelted stainless steel scrap, thereby completing the full life cycle.  Recycling stainless steel reduces the demand for new materials, conserves energy and minimizes environmental impacts of mining and production.  Because stainless steel is non-corrosive and durable, it can be recycled repeatedly without losing its inherent properties.

7 Benefits of Stainless Steel

As specialists in fabrication, architectural rigging, cable manufacturing and more we’ve worked with a wide range of materials in residential, commercial and industrial projects. One of our most commonly used materials across all these contexts is stainless steel. Its many unique properties combined, make it an ideal solution for many applications and we thought we’d explore all the different benefits of stainless steel to prove just how useful it really is.

Properties of Stainless Steel

To fully understand the benefits of stainless steel as a material used across a wide range of industries, it’s important to understand more about the properties of stainless steel that make it such an ideal material for use in fabrication, rigging, and cable manufacturing as well as commercial, industrial, and residential projects. Here are seven properties of stainless steel that bring so many benefits:

1. Corrosion Resistance
One of the best and most well-known characteristics of stainless steel is that it is extremely corrosion resistant. When it was first created by Harry Brearley in 1913 it was spoken of as the world’s first ‘rustless steel’. The addition of chromium content was the key component that gave stainless steel this quality and was seen as the major breakthrough in its development. Stainless steel has evolved a great deal since then with many different types/grades available. We typically use 316-grade stainless steel which also contains 3% molybdenum. This further strengthens its resistance to corrosion against industrial acids, alkaline solutions and makes it particularly resilient in high saline environments (i.e. those by the sea). This founding characteristic has made it highly applicable all over the world.

2. Fire and heat resistance
The resilience of stainless steel as a material is a common theme throughout this blog and its resistance to fire and heat is an integral part of that. Stainless steel has this attribute because of its oxidation resistance, even at high temperatures. This enables it to retain its strength under harsh and extreme temperature conditions very effectively. Chromium again plays an important role in this respect and makes stainless steel a great choice with fire resistance and fire prevention in mind. It’s a material that outperforms the likes of galvanised steel and aluminium in this regard.

3. Hygiene
A benefit of stainless steel that might not immediately come to mind, but is particularly true and important, relates to hygiene. Stainless steel is an extremely hygienic material due to the fact that it is extremely easy to clean and sanitise. Its smooth, sheen-like and non-porous surface means that the likes of dirt, grime and bacteria struggle to establish themselves on its exterior. When they do, they can very easily be wiped away. The ease of this cleaning and maintenance makes stainless steel an excellent choice in environments where strong hygiene is vital. This is why professional kitchens are made almost exclusively of stainless steel and why you’ll see it relied on heavily in hospitals, laboratories, factories etc.

4. Impact resistance and strength
Stainless steel is an extremely tough and highly durable material with high impact resistance. Part of the reason for this is that stainless steel has low susceptibility to brittleness at high and low temperatures. Not only does this mean that the material will retain its shape, but it means at its melting point it can be more easily welded, cut, fabricated etc as we do in the manufacture of balustrades for example. Interestingly, it’s also a material that’s commonly used in cryogenic applications given its strength in cold working conditions showing again just how strong a material it is.

5. Aesthetic appearance
Another reason why many turn to stainless steel is somewhat superficial but not less valid and that’s to do with its aesthetic appearance. Ever since its creation, stainless steel has been seen as an elegant, attractive and modern material. Many see it as a material that has a brightness that resonates with a sense of purity. It is also a material that has stood the test of time and if anything, has become more and more popular as a functional and ornamental choice in residences and commercial properties around the world. It is also a material that complements and works well with most other materials, styles and colours.

6. Sustainability
Another benefit that doesn’t get a lot of attention when it comes to stainless steel but one that is very important as a global issue is the fact that it’s a highly sustainable choice. Stainless steel is typically created from about 70% scrap metal meaning its foundations come from that which isn’t being used. Furthermore, it’s 100% recyclable in its original form which means it can be repurposed should it cease to serve its original function. It won’t leach toxic chemicals like some other materials during the recycling process and doing so, reduces the need for mining the rarer elements that play an important role in the creation of stainless steel.

7. Long term value
When you consider the longevity of stainless steel as well as all the other factors mentioned above, the total life cycle cost of the material stacks up well. Its increasing prevalence in our society has increased competition from suppliers meaning pricing has been as competitive as it’s ever been. This, coupled with the fact that the maintenance cost for stainless steel is extremely low, means you’ll get great returns when choosing it as your material of choice. Given we’ve also just mentioned that it’s 100% recyclable means that it is really hard to lose out on stainless steel as a solution.
Some great benefits of stainless steel

Disadvantages of Stainless Steel

The great news about stainless steel is that it has very few disadvantages. One potential downside can be that it is difficult to manufacture stainless steel and this can sometimes lead to higher costs. As we have discussed above, however, the long term value of stainless steel means that any initial outlay pays for itself over time.

Another potential disadvantage is the fact that Stainless steel can also show up dirt and grease in certain environments. When you think about kitchen surfaces or appliances, even the smallest smudge or fingerprint will show up on the surface and whilst they are easy to wipe clean, it can be a battle to keep them clean, especially with a big family.

Overall, however, the advantages of stainless steel far outweigh the disadvantages making it the ideal material for a huge range of applications.

As you can see, there are some great benefits of stainless steel that shouldn’t be overlooked or dismissed. We hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and would be happy to discuss the needs and requirements for your next project and how stainless steel might work as a solid solution for you!