Type 304 Stainless Steel is a Chromium-Nickel austenitic alloy that has a minimum of 18% chromium, 8% nickel and a maximum of 0.08% carbon. It is the most versatile and most widely used stainless steel. This category of stainless steel has excellent forming and welding characteristics. It also has good drawability and can be used without annealing.
Grade 304 SS is used extensively for home as well as commercial applications. For example, it is widely used in manufacture of sinks, hollow-ware and saucepans. It is also used for making various components in industrial, architectural and transportation applications such as food processing equipment, chemical containers etc.
It is difficult to differentiate between 304 Stainless Steel and 316 Stainless Steel by their looks, as both looks similar. The key difference is the addition of molybdenum in Grade 316, which makes it more corrosion-resistant. Also, it is more resistant to oxidations. Generally, Grade 304 SS is less expensive.
Grade 304 Stainless Steel is more expensive than Grade 301 due to higher chromium and nickel content in them. The two common varieties that fall under this category are 304 SS Solid and 304 SS Turning.
price
Various grades of stainless steel scrap are priced differently. Hence it is advised to segregate the scrap material into various categories according to yard requirements. This will help to maximize the returns from your scrap.
yards
Kitchens, Machine Shops, Buildings and automobiles are the best places from where 304 SS scrap can be obtained in bulk quantities. The modern scrap yards use analyzers to determine the type of stainless steel grade and make payment per pound of each category of scrap.