Brief Definition and Related Expound to Stainless Steel
There is an extensive use of stainless steel in various industries, so it is important and necessary to learn much about it.
In metallurgy stainless steel, also called inox steel or inox, is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content.
Stainless steel does not stain, corrode, or rust easily, but it does not mean stain-proof.
There are different grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment to which the material will be subjected in its lifetime.
Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and resistance to corrosion are required.
Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium pcontent. Carbon steel rusts when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film (the rust) is active and accelerates corrosion by forming more iron oxide. Stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide, which prevents further surface corrosion and blocks corrosion from spreading into the metal's internal structure.
A few corrosion-resistant iron artefacts survive from antiquity. A famous (and very large) example is the Iron Pillar of Delhi, erected by order of Kumara Gupta I around the year AD 400. Unlike stainless steel, however, these artefacts owe their durability not to chromium, but to their high phosphorus content, which, together with favourable local weather conditions, promotes the formation of a solid protective passivation layer of iron oxides and phosphates, rather than the non-protective, cracked rust layer that develops on most ironwork.
Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion and staining, low maintenance, relatively low cost, and familiar lustre make it an ideal base material for a host of commercial applications than any other metal materials.
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