There are countless types of stainless steel that can be used to create custom wire baskets or trays. Each stainless steel alloy formulation has unique properties in terms of tensile strength, melting point, oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance.
Choosing the right grade of stainless steel requires understanding your options. To help you better understand your choices, here is a brief description of the most common types of stainless steel and their properties:
The Five Main Categories of Stainless Steel
While there are thousands of different alloys of stainless steel, they can all be divided into three main categories:
- Austenitic Stainless Steels. These are the most commonly used type of stainless steel. Austenitic stainless steels tend to have higher chromium content than other steel alloys, which gives them greater corrosion resistance. Another common characteristic of austenitic stainless steel alloys is that they tend not to be magnetic – although they may become magnetic after cold working.
- Ferritic Stainless Steels. After austenitic alloys, the second most common form of stainless steel. As the name implies, ferritic stainless steels are magnetic. These alloys can be hardened by cold working. They also tend to be less expensive due to their lower nickel content.
- Martensitic Stainless Steels. The least common category of stainless steel alloys. They tend to have lower corrosion resistance than ferritic or austenitic alloys, but have higher hardness. Martensitic stainless steel alloys are generally well suited for applications that require extremely high tensile strength and impact resistance. When corrosion resistance is also required for the above applications, these alloys can be used with a protective polymer coating.
- Duplex (ferritic-austenitic) stainless steel. This type of stainless steel gets its name “duplex” from its composition; it is composed of half austenite and half delta ferrite. These stainless steel alloys have better corrosion resistance than standard austenitic stainless steels, especially against chloride pitting, and have higher tensile strength. Due to their physical properties and chemical resistance, duplex stainless steels are widely used in the oil and gas industry for piping systems or pipes and pressure vessels in the petrochemical industry.
- Precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steel. This type of stainless steel is made of a durable, corrosion-resistant, and extremely strong alloy. After treatment, its strength can be three to four times that of standard austenitic stainless steel. They are most commonly used in the aerospace, nuclear energy, and oil and gas industries.