Process to Make Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is an iron which contains alloy and made up of more than two chemical compounds and are used for large variety of purposes. The invention of stainless steel consists of a sequence of methods. First of all, melt the steel and then convert it into solid form.

It is a step by step process, heat treats the steel and then cleans it and finally, polishing is done to give it a final touch. After that packaging is done and the stainless steels are delivered to manufacturers who join and fix the steel and make the preferred shapes.

Process to Make Stainless Steel

The procedure for making stainless steel involves the following steps such as:-

Melting and Casting

First of all, the raw materials are melted in an electric heater. Melting is done for about 8-12 hours of extreme heat. After the melting has been finished, the molten steel is converted into semi-finished shapes. The different shapes include billets, blooms, rods, slabs and tube rounds.

Forming

The semi-finished steel proceeds through forming procedures which begins with hot rolling where the steel is heated at a certain temperature and approved through the large rolls. Billets and blooms are formed into wire and bar whereas slabs are formed into strip, plate and sheet.

Heat Treatment

After forming the stainless steel, then it passes through the heating treatment. In this process, the steel is cooled and heated under restricted environment to soften the metal and to reduce inner stresses. Most of the stainless steels are heat treated for greater potency. This type of heat treatment is called as age hardening and needs cautious management.

Heating a stainless steel at a high temperature makes the material hard and generates low strength whereas heating it at a low temperature creates high strength along with low breakage toughness. The heating temperature for stainless steel is 482-537 degree Celsius or 900-1000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Descaling

As a result of heating treatment, build-up or a scale is formed on the stainless steel. The scale can be eliminated with the help of many processes. Pickling, the most popular method make use of nitric-hydrofluoric acid bath in order to descale the stainless steel. Electrocleaning is also used in which an electric current is passed to the plane and uses the phosphoric acid and cathode and eliminates the scale.

Cutting

Cutting operations are important to acquire the preferred blank size or shape and cut the portion in order to give the final touching. Mechanical cutting of stainless steel is done through circle shearing and straight shearing. Other methods to cut the stainless steel involve nibbling and blanking.

Finishing

Finally, finishing is done for various stainless steel products to give the final appearance. Then the stainless steel is polished to make its surface smooth which offers better corrosion resistance. There are various methods which are used for finishing the stainless steel and they include dull finish, bright finish, highly reflective finish and tumbling finish.

Conclusion

The person can follow all these processes in order to make stainless steel.