The History of Stainless Steel
| The Background The "discovery" of stainless steel happened early in the 20th century, around 1900 -1915. Yet, as with many discoveries, it followed the accumulated efforts of several individuals and the cogs were set in motion by Englishemen Stoddard and Farraday around 1820. In 1821 a Frenchman named Pierre Berthier found that iron when alloyed with chromium was more resistant to acids than chromium-free iron and that the resistance increased with increasing chromium content. In 1872, Messrs. Woods and Clark applied for a British patent for what they identified as an acid and weather resistant alloy containing 30 to 35% chromium and 1.5 to 2% tungsten. But the real development came in 1875, when another Frenchman named Brustlein recognized the importance of carbon levels in addition to chromium. Brustlein pointed out that in order to create an alloy with a high percentage of chromium, the carbon content must remain below around 0.15%. While many others investigated the chromium/iron composition, the difficulty in obtaining the low carbon levels persisted for many years, and It wasn’t until 1895, when Hans Goldschmidt of Germany developed the aluminothermic reduction process for producing carbon-free chromium, that development of stainless steels became a reality and low carbon ferrochrome became commercially available.
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Hans Goldschmidt and Pierre Berthier |
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Stainless Steel Mesh is used in many industrial and domestic applications |
The Discovery
In 1904, French metallurgist Leon Guillet (1873-1946) published research on alloys with composition that we know today as 410 – 420 – 442- 446 and 440-C. In 1906, he also published a detailed study of an iron-nickel-chromium alloy that is the basic metallurgical structure for the 300 series of stainless steel. |
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Industrial Development Englishman Harry Brearley (born in Sheffield in 1871) was appointed principal researcher at Brown Firth Laboratories in 1908. In 1912 Brearley set out to create an erosion resistant steel, not a corrosion resistant one, and began experimenting with steel alloys containing chromium. During these experiments Brearley made several variations of his alloys, ranging from 6% to 15% chromium with differing measures of carbon. The following year, Brearley created a steel with 12.8% chromium and 0.24% carbon. In order to analyse the potential resistance of his steel samples to chemical attack, Brearley tested its resistance with various corrosive agents including lemon juice and vinegar and was amazed to find that his alloys were still highly resistant, and immediately recognising the potential for his steel within the cutlery industry.
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Nowadays, stainless steel is used in many applications including handrails and balustrades |
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The top of Chrysler Building is entirely made of stainless steel |
Applications Today, there are over 150 grades of stainless steel, of which fifteen are most commonly used. Stainless steel can be made into coils, sheets, plates, bars, wire and tubing and is used in cookware, cutlery, hardware, major appliances, industrial equipment, automotive and aerospace, in surgical instruments and a multitude of other applications. Stainless steel is used in buildings and was very much in vogue in the 1930’s, the most famous example of this is the Chrysler Building which has its entire upper portion made of stainless steel.
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