Stainless steel is a material less than 100 years old. There are still new grades being developed and further characterisations to be made in order to fully utilise the excellent properties of this type of material.
Development work is focusing upon the products that are of special market interest. This is includes polished, brushed and decorated surfaces as well as work hardened high strength stainless steels and grades with a special corrosion resistance. Both material properties and production techniques are of interest.
Outokumpu has a well-established corrosion lab, where the suitability for different grades in various kinds of environments is tested. Tests are performed either in standard solutions or in solutions especially made for or provided by our customers in order to find the best suitable stainless solution. The corrosion handbook is one very good source of information on the corrosion resistance of stainless steel. The mechanical properties of stainless steel are one of the reasons why they are growing in use.
Outokumpu is focusing upon design properties and formability of stainless. High strength and ultrahigh strength stainless steels open new application areas where aluminium or coated carbon steel was earlier the standard material.Stainless steel as a high temperature material is another focus area.