The Truth about Stainless Steel: What You Need to Know?

一、Origin of Stainless steel

Stainless steel is a type of steel, which refers to steel containing less than 2% carbon (C), and iron containing more than 2%. During the smelting process, the addition of alloying elements such as chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), titanium (Ti), molybdenum (Mo), etc. improves the performance of steel and gives it corrosion resistance (i.e. no rusting), forming what we commonly refer to as "stainless steel".

二、Classification of stainless steel

According to the classification of organizational status, it can be divided into the following five categories:

1.Austenitic stainless steel

         Contain more than 18% chromium, as well as about 8% nickel and small amounts of elements such as molybdenum, titanium, and nitrogen.

         Advantages: Good comprehensive performance (high temperature strength, oxidation resistance, welding performance, etc.), resistant to corrosion from multiple media.

         Disadvantage: It is particularly sensitive to media containing chloride ions (CL).

         Like: SS304,SS201,SS202 etc.

   Win Tend always use SS201 to produce kinds of trolleys、work tables、GN Pans、sinks and cabinets etc. SS304 also is accept, if customer agree to use more expensive SS304, we also also do, like our South African customers always require 304 material to cope with the hot and humid environment in the local area.

2.Martensitic stainless steel

Chromium mass fraction is 11.5%~18.0%, carbon mass fraction can reach up to 0.6%.

         Advantages: It is usually used as a material for making parts and tools with high stress, and is used for making stainless steel utensils such as knives and scissors.

         Disadvantages: Poor plasticity and weldability.

         Like: SS410, SS420 etc.

3. Ferritic stainless steel

Containing 12% to 30% chromium.

        Advantages: Corrosion resistance, toughness, and weldability improve with increasing chromium content, and chloride stress corrosion resistance is superior to other types of stainless steel.

        Disadvantages: Steel has high sensitivity to notches and brittle transition temperature, and is also more sensitive to intergranular corrosion after heating.

        Like SS409,SS430,SS443 etc.

        Win Tend usually use SS443 material as the bottom or the body of stock pot.

4. Ferritic austenitic stainless steel

It has the advantages of both austenite and ferrite stainless steel, and has superplasticity.Like 329J3L,329J4L, they are not used in the catering and kitchenware industry.

5. Precipitation hardening stainless steel

  It is mainly used to manufacture containers and structural parts that require high strength and corrosion resistance, and can also be used as high-temperature parts, such as steam turbine parts.

三、The main characteristics of stainless steel

1. Weldability

2. Corrosion resistance

3. Polishing performance

4. Heat resistance performance

As stainless steel has these excellent characteristics, we have chosen to use stainless steel to manufacture various kitchen utensils and supplies.