The history of stainless steel

Stainless steel even before the antique?

No, stainless steel has not been around that long. After all, tools or swords back then were made of iron, not with stainless steel. While iron is a pure metal, stainless steel is an iron-carbon alloy that contains less than 2% carbon. If the alloy contains at least 10,5% of the secondary raw material chromium, it is considered non-rusting. Nickel or molybdenum promote the corrosion resistance.

But how did it start?

1821, the French mineralogist Pierre Berthier discovered that the addition of chromium to steel had a very positive effect on the corrosion behavior of the steel. Nevertheless, it still took almost 100 years before this was finally achieved. At the beginning of the 20th century, the chemical industry needed a corrosion-resistant material for modern synthesis processes. (1)

In the research laboratory of the Krupp company in Essen, the metallurgist and physicist Benno Strau? and his colleague Eduard Maurer, a metallurgist and chemist, achieved the breakthrough. The V2a and V4a experiments brought the long-awaited success. Through the targeted addition of nickel and chromium, a revolutionary material property was achieved – corrosion resistance and resistance to many types of acids. These have opened up undreamed-of applications to this day.

As a result, two patents for austenitic steels with high resistance to corrosion were registered in October 1912, and then the name Nirosta was protected as a trademark in 1922. Since then, numerous further refinements have been made. (2)

In 1913, the Englishman Harry Brearley developed a martensitic steel for cutlery. 13 years later, artificial joints were even implanted in stainless steel. (3)

But the breakthrough wasn't just in the development of new materials.. There was also progress in the machines used in strip production. Here we should mention the Pole Tadeusz Sendzimir, a well-known figure in the industry in the 20th century. He improved the multi-roll mill with 2 work rolls and 4 back-up rolls developed by Wilhelm Rohn in 1930. One of his 120 patents is the Sendzimir stand, named after him. This is a multi-roll stand for cold rolling wide steel strip. With up to 18 support rolls, two thin work rolls are held and stabilized in the housing, enabling high thickness reductions and tight tolerances. (2)

Of course, stainless steel is still used today in diverse and numerous applications. For example, stainless steel is used in furniture construction, shipbuilding, the kitchen or household industry, the automotive industry, medical technology, aerospace and various other areas. The range of applications is almost inexhaustible…

Sources:

(1) Rostfrei Stahl (2021), Das Geheimnis von rostfreiem Edelstahl

(2) D. Schulz (n.d.), The big steel book

(3) MW Interior (2018), Die Geschichte des Edelstahls