Dec. 09, 2024
A confident look passes across your face, maybe the slightest hint of a cheeky grin, victory is in sight my friend! This is the question that makes you a million, wins you that holiday of a lifetime, gives you the title of office genius, or gets you that elusive slice of pie on the Trivial Pursuit board.
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Since the dawn of man colonies have raced against each other to uncover new technologies, to be the first to stamp their names on a discovery, and although we&#;ve evolved over millions of years, (most of us, anyway), the urge to be the first remains at the very core of our nature. This sense of passion and pride can lead some of the more unscrupulous humans to claim others discoveries as their own. Of course many breakthroughs are genuinely made in tandem, or are simultaneously occurring, but unless you can categorically prove that you were the pioneer of these incredible findings, then the other party involved will always dispute the fact.
And so we come to stainless steel.
The first point to note is that &#;inventor&#; is a very ambiguous term. Is this the first person to think, to document, to patent, or to produce? The second point is that stainless steel wasn&#;t truly defined until , so are we to cast aside those chromium-iron alloys that don&#;t quite meet the minimum requirement of 10.5% chromium?
It seems like anyone and everyone has a different claim to being labelled the &#;inventor&#; of stainless steel; from Britain, Germany, France, Poland, the U.S.A., and even Sweden.
The cogs were set in motion by Englishmen Stoddart and Faraday circa and Frenchman Pierre Berthier in . These scientists, among others, noted that iron-chromium alloys were more resistant to attack by certain acids, but tests were only carried out on low chromium content alloys. Attempts to produce higher chromium alloys failed primarily because of scientists not understanding the importance of low carbon content.
In another pair of Englishmen, Woods and Clark, filed for patent of an acid and weather resistant iron alloy containing 30-35% chromium and 2% tungsten, effectively the first ever patent on what would now be considered a stainless steel. However, the real development came in when a Frenchman named Brustlein detailed the importance of low carbon content in successfully making stainless steel. 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%.
Thus ensued two decades of stagnation for the development of stainless steel, and while many scientists attempted to create a low carbon stainless steel, none succeeded.
Hans Goldschmidt
It wasn&#;t until , when Hans Goldschmidt of Germany developed the aluminothermic reduction process for producing carbon-free chromium, that development of stainless steels became a reality.
In French Scientist Leon Guillet undertook extensive research on many iron-chromium alloys.
Guillet&#;s work included studies on the composition of what would now be known as 410, 420, 442, 446 and 440-C. In Guillet went on to analyse iron-nickel-chrome alloys, which would now be considered the basics of the 300 series. However, while noting the chemical composition of his alloys, Guillet failed to acknowledge the potential corrosion resistance of his materials.
Albert Portevin
In Englishman Giesen published an in-depth work regarding chromium-nickel steels, while the French national, Portevin, studied what is now regarded as 430 stainless steel. However, it wasn&#;t until that the importance of a minimum chromium content was discovered by Germans P. Monnartz and W. Borchers. Monnartz and Borchers discovered the correlation between chromium content and corrosion resistance, stating that there was a significant boost in corrosion resistance when at least 10.5% chromium was present. The pair also published detailed works on the effects of molybdenum on corrosion resistance.
It is at this point we introduce Harry Brearley, born in Sheffield, England in , he was appointed lead researcher at Brown Firth Laboratories in . In Brearley was given a task by a small arms manufacturer who wished to prolong the life of their gun barrels which were eroding away too quickly. 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 levels of carbon.
On the 13th August Brearley created a steel with 12.8% chromium and 0.24% carbon, argued to be the first ever stainless steel. The circumstances in which Brearley discovered stainless steel are covered in myth; some enchanted tales of Brearley recite him tossing his steel into the rubbish, only to notice later that the steel hadn&#;t rusted to the extent of its counterparts, much like Alexander Fleming&#;s experience 15 years later.
Other more plausible, (but less attractive), accounts claim it was necessary for Brearley to etch his steels with nitric acid and examine them under a microscope in order to analyse their potential resistance to chemical attack. Brearley found that his new steel resisted these chemical attacks and proceeded to test the sample with other agents, including lemon juice and vinegar. Brearley was astounded to find that his alloys were still highly resistant, and immediately recognised the potential for his steel within the cutlery industry.
The Half Moon
Brearley struggled to win the support of his employers, instead choosing to produce his new steel at local cutler R. F. Mosley. He found difficulty producing knife blades in the new steel that did not rust or stain and turned to his old school friend, Ernest Stuart, Cutlery Manager at Mosley&#;s Portland Works, for help. Within 3 weeks, Stuart had perfected the hardening process for knives. Brearley had initially decided to name his invention &#;Rustless Steel&#;, but Stuart, dubbed it &#;Stainless Steel&#; after testing the material in a vinegar solution, and the name stuck. And that&#;s how Harry Brearley discovered stainless steel&#;. well, not quite&#;
During the 5 year period between and Brearley&#;s discovery in many other scientists and metallurgists have potential claims to Brearley&#;s title.
In the Germans entered the fray, the Krupp Iron Works in Germany produced a chrome-nickel steel for the hull of the Germania yacht. The Half Moon, as the yacht is now known, has a rich history and currently lies on the seabed off the east coast of Florida. Whether the steel contains the minimum 10.5% chromium content remains inconclusive. Employees of the Krupp works, Eduard Maurer and Benno Strauss, also worked from - on developing austenitic steels using <1% carbon, <20% nickel and 15-40% chromium.
Not happy with Europe hogging the glory, the USA got in on the act. Firstly, Elwood Haynes, after becoming disenchanted at his rusty razor, set out to create a corrosion resistant steel, which he supposedly succeeded in doing during . Two other Americans, Becket and Dantsizen, worked on ferritic stainless steels, containing 14-16% chromium and 0.07-0.15% carbon, in the years -.
Elwood Haynes
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During Max Mauermann of Poland is rumoured to have created the first stainless steel, which he later presented to the public during the Adria exhibition in Vienna, .
Finally, a recently discovered article, which was published in a Swedish hunting and fishing magazine in , discusses a steel used for gun barrels, (sound familiar?), which seems to resemble stainless steel. Although this is purely speculation, the Swedes have still made an audacious claim that they were in fact responsible for the first practical application for stainless steel.
That concludes the shambolic discovery of stainless steel! Although there is much mystery and speculation behind the discovery of this wonderful material, there is no question that without the combined effort of all the above scientists and metallurgists, (and all the many more that were not mentioned), we would not have such a rich and versatile metal at our fingertips.
Oh, and if we have to give you an answer to that first question? Harry Brearley.
Unlike iron, which has been in use for over a thousand years, stainless steel is a relative newcomer to the materials science world, having first been produced only 100 years ago. This may seem hard to believe at first, given the ubiquity of the metal in almost every facet of modern life, but this is simply a testament to what an important breakthrough stainless steel was. The metal has revolutionized the modern world and has found applications in almost every manufacturing sector, from healthcare and catering equipment, to the automotive and construction industries. Furthermore, it has out-performed more traditional competing materials such as copper, aluminium, and carbon steel.
The secret to the success of stainless steel lies in its incredible physical and chemical properties. Stainless steel has high corrosion resistance, heat resistance (of up to °C [°F]), formability and weldability, durability, and does not rust. On top of this, the metal does not readily react to many substances, and is inexpensive compared to specialist, non-corrosive alloys. Over the past century, metallurgists have invented and improved methods to make stainless steels, control their properties, and mass-produce them with consistent quality.
The year marks the centenary of the invention of this remarkable metal, and in this article we take a brief look at the history of one of the most important breakthroughs in materials science.
In , Harry Brearley of Sheffield, UK discovered &#;rustless&#; steel. Although there had been many prior attempts, Brearley has been credited with inventing the first true stainless steel, which had a 12.8% chromium content. He had added chromium to molten iron to produce a metal that did not rust. Chromium is a key ingredient, as it provides the resistance to corrosion. After this discovery, Sheffield itself became synonymous with steel and metallurgy.
Brearley stumbled upon this discovery while trying to solve the problem of erosion of the internal surfaces of gun barrels for the British army during the onset of the First World War.
After the initial discovery, further improvements to stainless steel occurred at a fairly rapid pace. In , Elwood Haynes obtained a patent on martensitic stainless steel, in William J. Kroll of Luxembourg was the first to discover precipitation-hardening stainless steel, and in duplex stainless steel was first produced in Sweden at the Avesta Ironworks.
The outstanding properties of stainless steel were gradually realized over the years, and below is a short timeline outlining some of the key moments in the history of stainless steel.
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Request a Quote HereOver the last 100 years, about 100 grades of stainless steel have been discovered and made commercially available. These grades fall under four main family groups, namely, martenistic, ferritic, austentic, and duplex. Ferritic and martensitic stainless steels are magnetic while austenitic stainless steels are non-magnetic. These have varying quantities of other alloying metals like nickel, titanium, and copper, added to them. Carbon and nitrogen are also added to enhance the overall characteristics of stainless steel.
Today, China is the largest producer of stainless steel in the world. One of the leading stainless steel producers and distributors is Outokumpu, a group of companies headquartered in Espoo, Finland.
Stainless steel has found a myriad of applications from the tiniest structural parts in artificial heart valves to the largest architectural structures. Several world famous monuments, such as the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago, have been constructed using stainless steel.
With the growing awareness about the importance of reducing carbon emissions, many countries are keen on promoting stainless steel which is resistant to corrosion and has prolonged service life, therefore not requiring frequent replacements and repairs. Additionally, stainless steel is also 100% recyclable and does not degrade when reprocessed, thus allowing for multiple life cycles. The sustainability of stainless steel is unmatched compared to other metals.
STEEL: From Start to Finish
The growth of stainless steel is likely to increase as the sustainability benefits of stainless steel become more widely known. Researchers have even found that coating stainless steel with certain bio-inspired adhesives makes it anti-bacterial, thus adding to the long list of benefits of stainless steel.
This innovative material is therefore a material that is very likely to extend its use well into the next century and beyond.
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