Stainless steels are characterized as having relatively poor wear resistance and tribological properties, but they are often required for a particular application because of their corrosion resistance. This article describes the classification of stainless steels and wear. Stainless steels have been classified by microstructure and are categorized as austenitic, martensitic, ferritic, or duplex. The main categories of wear are related to abrasion, erosion, adhesive wear, and surface fatigue. The article presents a list that proposes the alloy family that could be the optimal selection for a particular wear mode. The corrosion modes include dry sliding, tribocorrosion, erosion, erosion-corrosion, cavitation, dry erosion, erosion-oxidation, galling and fretting.

Stainless steels are primarily alloys of iron and chromium. They are grouped into five families, primarily based on their microstructure: ferritic, austenitic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation hardening. Three out of the five families of stainless steels, namely, austenitic, ferritic, and martensitic, are well suited for manufacture via conventional powder metallurgy (PM) processes. This article presents the iron-chromium partial phase diagram to illustrate the changes in the temperature range when pure iron is alloyed with chromium. It describes AISI and UNS numbering systems, which are used as an identification system for stainless steels. The article tabulates the material designations of stainless steels in accordance with the Metal Powder Industries Federation. It also details the characteristics and chemical composition of wrought and PM stainless steels.

This article describes the sintering behavior of austenitic, ferritic, and martensitic stainless steels. It presents different sintering schedules that are selected by Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF). The article provides information on the equipment and atmospheres used for sintering and the steps involved in the process. It discusses the factors that influence the dimensional changes in sintering, namely, powder-related, compaction-related, and sintering-related factors.

Precipitation hardening is a hardening mechanism found in various steels and alloy systems, such as nickel-, cobalt-, titanium-, copper-, and iron-base alloys. This article provides a brief description of precipitation hardening process, furnace equipment, surface-related problems, and protective atmospheres used in heat treatment of iron-base precipitation-hardenable (PH) superalloys. It focuses on various factors to be considered in heat treating of PH stainless steels: cleaning prior to heat treatment, furnace atmospheres, time-temperature cycles, variations in cycles, and scale removal after heat treatment. The article describes the mechanical properties, solution treatment, and aging treatment for many martensitic PH alloys, including: Alloy 17-4 PH, Alloy 13-8 Mo, Alloy 15-5 PH, Custom 450, and Custom 455; as well as semiaustenitic PH stainless steels such as Alloy 17-7 PH, Alloy PH 15-7 Mo, AM-350, Pyromet 350, AM-355, and Pyromet 355; austenitic PH stainless steel, A-286; cast PH stainless steels; and iron-nickel PH superalloys.

Low-temperature surface hardening is mostly applied to austenitic stainless steels when a combination of excellent corrosion performance and wear performance is required. This article provides a brief history of low-temperature surface hardening of stainless steel, followed by a discussion on physical metallurgy, including crystallographic identity, thermal stability and decomposition, nitrogen and carbon solubility in expanded austenite, and diffusion kinetics of interstitials. It provides a description of low-temperature nitriding and nitrocarburizing processes for primarily austenitic and, to a lesser extent, other types of stainless steels along with practical examples and industrial applications of these steels.

Stainless steels are essential for the modern industrial civilization because of their corrosion resistance, especially in the chemical, petrochemical, and food industries. This article discusses the classification of the various types of stainless steels, including martensitic, ferritic, austenitic, duplex (ferritic-austenitic), and precipitation-hardening stainless steels. It presents a checklist of characteristics to be considered in selecting the proper type of stainless steel for a specific application. The article also outlines the need to promote the formation of an effective protective passive layer in stainless steels. It discusses hardness, fatigue and fretting properties, tribological properties, wear resistance, and corrosion-wear process of the S-phase layer. The article describes two thermochemical nitriding techniques of stainless steels: plasma-assisted nitriding techniques and non-plasma assisted nitriding processes. It also describes the difficulties in stainless steel nitriding/carburizing.

This article provides a discussion on heat treating practices, namely, carburizing, normalizing, annealing, stress relieving, preheating, austenitizing, quenching, tempering, and nitriding for various grades of mold and corrosion-resistant tool steels. It details the characteristics of various grades of mold and corrosion-resistant tool steels, including type P20, type P20Mod, AISI type 420, and AISI type 440B.

Martensitic stainless steels are the least corrosion-resistant of all stainless alloys. The traditional martensitic stainless steels are iron/chromium/carbon alloys, sometimes with a small amount of nickel and/or molybdenum. This article provides an overview on the influences of the various possible alloying elements on the key properties of martensitic stainless steels. It describes the various preparation processes, namely, atmosphere selection, cleaning, and preheating, prior to heat treatment for these steels. Common heat treatment methods include annealing, hardening, tempering, and stress relieving. The article lists the compositions of casting alloys and also describes the effect of tempering temperature on the hardness, strength, ductility, and toughness properties of the alloys.

Stainless steels are used for medical implants and surgical tools due to the excellent combination of properties, such as cost, strength, corrosion resistance, and ease of cleaning. This article describes the classifications of stainless steels, such as austenitic stainless steels, martensitic stainless steels, ferritic stainless steels, precipitation-hardening stainless steels, and duplex stainless steels. It contains a table that lists common medical device applications for stainless steels. The article discusses the physical metallurgy and physical and mechanical properties of stainless steels. Medical device considerations for stainless steels, such as fatigue strength, corrosion resistance, and passivation techniques, are reviewed. The article explains the process features of implant-grade stainless steels, including type 316L, type 316LVM, nitrogen-strengthened, ASTM F1314, ASTM F1586, ASTM F2229, and ASTM F2581 stainless steels.

Stainless steels, based on forging pressure and load requirements, are more difficult to forge because of the greater strength at elevated temperatures and the limitations on the maximum temperatures at which stainless steels can be forged without incurring microstructural damage. This article discusses the forging methods, primary mill practices (primary forging and ingot breakdown), trimming, and cleaning operations of stainless steels. It describes the use of forging equipment, dies, and die material in the forging operation. The article provides an overview of the forgeability of austenitic stainless steels, martensitic stainless steels, precipitation-hardening stainless steels, and ferritic stainless steels. It concludes with a discussion on the heating and lubrication of dies.

This article provides an overview of the identification systems for various grades of wrought stainless steels, namely, the American Iron and Steel Institute numbering system, the Unified Numbering System, and proprietary designations. It elaborates on five major families of stainless steels, as defined by the crystallographic structure. These include ferritic stainless steels, austenitic stainless steels, martensitic stainless steels, and precipitation-hardening stainless steels. The mechanism of corrosion protection for stainless steels is reviewed. The article examines the effects of composition, processing, design, fabrication, and external treatments on the corrosion of stainless steels. Various forms of corrosion, namely, general, galvanic, pitting, crevice, intergranular, stress-corrosion cracking, erosion-corrosion, and oxidation, are reviewed. Corrosion testing for; corrosion in atmosphere, water, and chemical environments; and the applications of stainless steels in various industries are also discussed.

Metallurgical variables, mainly carbon distribution and the presence of nitrogen and metallic phases, can influence the corrosion behavior of austenitic, ferritic, duplex, and martensitic stainless steels. This article describes the effects of these metallurgical and processing variables on the susceptibility of the stainless steels to intergranular corrosion and intergranular stress-corrosion cracking and their testing methods. It explains the effect of sigma and related phases on the corrosion behavior of stainless steels.

This article commences with a discussion on the characteristics of stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) and describes crack initiation and propagation during SCC. It reviews the various mechanisms of SCC and addresses electrochemical and stress-sorption theories. The article explains the SCC, which occurs due to welding, metalworking process, and stress concentration, including options for investigation and corrective measures. It describes the sources of stresses in service and the effect of composition and metal structure on the susceptibility of SCC. The article provides information on specific ions and substances, service environments, and preservice environments responsible for SCC. It details the analysis of SCC failures, which include on-site examination, sampling, observation of fracture surface characteristics, macroscopic examination, microscopic examination, chemical analysis, metallographic analysis, and simulated-service tests. It provides case studies for the analysis of SCC service failures and their occurrence in steels, stainless steels, and commercial alloys of aluminum, copper, magnesium, and titanium.

Stainless steels are iron-base alloys containing minimum of approximately 11% Cr, and owing to its excellent corrosion resistance, are used for wide range of applications. These applications include nuclear reactor vessels, heat exchangers, oil industry tubular, chemical processing components, pulp and paper industries, furnace parts, and boilers used in fossil fuel electric power plants. The article provides a brief introduction on corrosion resistance of wrought stainless steel and its designations. It lists the chemical composition and describes the physical and mechanical properties of five major stainless steel families, of which four are based on the crystallographic structure of the alloys, including martensitic, ferritic, austenitic, or duplex. The fifth is precipitation-hardenable alloys, based on the type of heat treatment used. The article further discusses the factors in the selection of stainless steel, namely corrosion resistance, fabrication characteristics, product forms, thermally induced embrittlement, mechanical properties in specific temperature ranges, and product cost.

This article reviews general trends in the cyclic response for representative commercial alloys to establish the spectrum of cyclic properties attainable through microstructural alteration. Individual alloy classes are examined in detail to assess the understanding of relationships between microstructure and fatigue resistance. These alloys classes include ferritic-pearlitic alloys, martensitic alloys, maraging steels, and metastable austenitic alloys. The article also discusses the role of internal defects and selective surface processing in influencing fatigue performance.

This article summarizes the key mechanical characteristics of various types of stainless steel, including ferritic, austenitic, martensitic, precipitation hardening, and duplex steels. Particular emphasis is on fracture properties and corrosion fatigue. The article tabulates typical room-temperature mechanical properties and fatigue endurance limits of stainless steels. Stainless steels are susceptible to embrittlement during thermal treatment or elevated-temperature service. The article discusses embrittlement in terms of sensitization, 475 deg C embrittlement, and sigma-phase embrittlement. It also describes the effect of environment on fatigue crack growth rate.

This article describes general welding characteristics such as weld microstructure and weldability. The correlations of preheating and postweld heat treatment practices with carbon contents and welding characteristics of martensitic stainless steels are reviewed. The article contains a table that lists the electrodes and welding rods suitable for use as filler metals in the welding of martensitic stainless steels. It provides specific arc welding procedural recommendations for the commonly welded martensitic stainless steels. Martensitic stainless steel joining methods such as laser-and electron-beam welding, resistance welding, flash welding, and friction welding, are discussed.

This article addresses consumable selection and procedure development for the welding of stainless steels. The WRC-1992 diagram and the Schaeffier diagram, are used to illustrate the rationale behind many filler-metal choices. The article discusses the basic metallurgy and base metals of five major families of stainless steels: martensitic stainless steels, ferritic stainless steels, austenitic stainless steels, precipitation-hardening (PH) stainless steels, and duplex ferritic-austenitic stainless steels. Stainless steels of all types are weldable by virtually all welding processes. The article describes the common arc welding processes with regard to procedure and technique errors that can lead to loss of ferrite control with the common austenitic stainless steel weld metals that are designed to contain a small amount of ferrite for protection from hot cracking. The arc welding processes include shielded-metal arc welding, gas-tungsten arc welding, and gas-metal arc welding.

This article commences with a brief description of the solidification characteristics and microstructures of martensitic precipitation hardening (PH) stainless steels. It reviews the welding parameters for types 17-4PH, 15-5PH, PH13-8 Mo, Custom 450, and Custom 455. The article describes the microstructural evolution and weld parameters associated with semiaustenitic PH steels. It discusses the weldability and welding recommendations for A-286 and JBK-75 austenitic PH stainless steels. The article also presents tables that list properties and heat treatments for the PH stainless steels.

This article briefly describes the welding of various stainless steels to dissimilar steels. The stainless steels include austenitic stainless steels, ferritic stainless steels, and martensitic stainless steels. The dissimilar steels include carbon and low-alloy steels. In addition, the article provides information on the cladding of austenitic stainless steel to carbon or low-alloy steels.