General Information

This page contains an overview of what is stainless steel. Stainless steel is a preferred type of steel because of its corrosion resistance. This type of steel contains a certain amount of chromium in order to be named stainless. The chromium in the steel allows the steel to form a thin film of chromium oxide when contacted with oxygen. This thin film protects the steel against corrosion and is referred to as steel stainless steel with more than a certain amount of chromium. Furthermore, many different elements added to the steel can lead to an increase or decrease in the corrosion resistance of the steel. For example, nickel added to the steel, combined with the chromium element, makes the stainless steel even stronger against corrosion. Corrosion resistance is further increased when the element molybdenum is combined with chromium and nickel. On the other hand, increasing the ratio of the elements such as sulfur and carbon in the steel decreases the corrosion resistance.