Differences You Should Know About 304 and 316 Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is popular because everyone automatically assumes that they never get stained. However, this notion is completely wrong because the truth is that they only get less easily stained compared to all the other iron-based metals. Just like any other type of steel out there, they can also get discoloured, get marked by your fingerprints as well as rust. The only major difference would be that they are more resilient. They are going to be able to stand more wear and tear before they show any signs of it. Now, if you plan to buy 316 metric stainless steel tube or 304 stainless steel tube, then you might want to know about their differences first.

When you buy 316 metric stainless steel tube, you are getting an additional element which is molybdenum because 304 steel tubes would not have that. If you are planning to put these tubes in a place where the exposure to chloride is high, then this is going to be worth it. This is because 316 steel tubes are bound to give you higher resistance to chloride so the extra price that it is going to cost you is going to be worth it just like the best nickel alloy 20 tubing. Here are some general and specific things that you should know about these two types of steel.

Resistance to Corrosion

One of the natural phenomena that occur to metals when they are reacted with oxygen, especially metals, is that they corrode. When they react with each other, they form the red flaky substance that is known as rust. Iron, most of all, is one of the elements that are highly susceptible to corrosion. However, have you ever wondered why stainless steel has this ability to resist corrosion? The secret to it is that they have chromium. Because they are non-reactive and highly durable, they can resist corrosion. If they get consumed, the rest of the chromium left are more likely to react together with oxygen and easily get replenished. This is why stainless steel is highly resistant to things such as rust.

304 Stainless Steel Tubes

304 stainless steel tube is probably one of the most common types of steel that people all over the world use because of its great resistance to being corroded. This is because it has about 24% of chromium in it. It can stand most of the oxidizing acids there are and this specific durability enables it to get sanitized easier. The problem with this lies, however in the fact, that it has a weakness: chloride solutions. And this holds from solutions that have 25ppm of NaCl.

316 Stainless Steel Tubes

After the 304, the 316 stainless steel tubes are the second most used steel in general. They have the same properties as of the 304 steel as well as similar composition. The difference would be that 316 stainless steel has at least 3% of molybdenum, a substance that helps increase the resistance to corrosion caused by chloride substances. This is where the advantage of the 316 stainless steel lies in.

Applications

These types of steels are normally used for finishing of houses, in kitchens, in machinery, equipment and a whole lot more. They are the ones that are trusted because of their special capabilities. If you are planning to select which one you should use, you need to consider the environment that you are going to work in so that you can choose which one would be more appropriate.

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Created on Jun 10th 2020 08:55. Viewed 133 times.

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