302HQ VS 304 Stainless Steel

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302HQ stainless steel is a standard material specifically used in the manufacture of self-tapping screws and light mechanical screws. It is also used in bolts, setting screws, rivets, and special fasteners. The name 302HQ is not standardized. The ASTM lists it as UNS S30430, which also includes “XM-7”, “304CU”, and “304HQ”. It has now completely replaced 384 and 305 steel for cold heading purpose. ISO 3506, Standard specification for stainless steel fasteners, 302HQ as an eligible component for class “A2” fasteners; It is commonly used to manufacture fasteners in the A2-70 and A2-80 strength. The stable austenitic structure enables 302HQ to be non-magnetic even after extensive cold working and to maintain excellent toughness at temperatures as low as freezing. Compared with 304 stainless steel, the addition of 3% copper in 302HQ can significantly reduce the cold work hardening rate. The chemical composition and physical properties are shown below:

 

Equivalent Material

Grades UNS No DIN EN JIS
302HQ S30430 1.4567 X3CrNiCu18-9-4 SUSXM7

 

Chemical Composition (ASTM A493 S30430)

Grades C Mn Si P S Cr Mo Ni Cu
302HQ 0.03 2.00 1.00 0.045 0.03 17.0-19.0 / 8.0-10.0 3.0-4.0

 

Mechanical Property

302HQ tensile strength: Annealing: 605, Mild drawing: 660

Density: 7900kg/㎡

Elasticity modulus：193Gpa

Average coefficient of thermal expansion: 0-100℃ (um/m/℃) 17.2; 0-315℃ (um/m/℃); 0-538 ℃ (18.8)

Thermal conductivity: 100℃ (W/ M. K) 16.3; 500℃ (W/ M. K) 21.5

Specific heat: 0-100℃ (J/ kg.K) 500;

Resistance: 720

 

Corrosion resistance

Its corrosion resistance is equivalent to or superior to 304 stainless steel. Pitting and crevice corrosion is easy to occur in the warm chloride environment, and stress corrosion cracking is sensitive when the temperature is higher than about 50°C. 302HQ can withstand about 200mg/L chloride in drinking water at room temperature and 150mg/L at 60℃.

 

Heat Resistant Performance

Good oxidation resistance, intermittent use temperature up to 870°C, continuous use temperature up to 925°C. Because of the low carbon content of 302HQ, it is safe for continuous use (no carbide precipitation) ranges from 425 to 860°C.

 

Heat Treatment

Solution treatment (annealing) is heated to 1010-1120°C and rapidly cooled. Heat treatment will not harden it.

 

Weldability

Excellent weldability, all standard fusion welding methods (whether or not they contain filler metal) can be used. Use a 308L electrode. Welding is generally not required except in the manufacture of stud welded fasteners, where resistance butt welding is used to join wires together.

 

Processing 

The 302HQ is rarely machined. The grade has a very low sulfur content, which helps its formability but reduces its machinability. The Improved 302HQ (UGIMA 4567) has very high machinability, slightly higher sulfur content, and is also calcium treated for use requiring extensive cold forming and machining operations on the 18/8 steel.

 

Cold Work Hardening

302HQ is the lowest work hardening rate among the common grades of austenitic stainless steels. According to the wire drawing data, the tensile strength increases by 8MPa when the cold-working area decreases by 1%). Even after extensive cold work, the brand remains essentially unresponsive to magnets. Some high strength cold heading fasteners require a slightly higher work hardening rate, so 304 or 304L (or special grade 304M) should be used instead of 302HQ; The work hardening rate of these grades is about 10-12.5MPa.

 

Typical Applications

All harsh cold heading applications, including self-tapping screws, roof bolts, mechanical screws, bolts, set screws, blind rivets, etc.

Stainless steel 321 VS 347

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The property of 321 stainless steel and 347 stainless steel is similar in most cases, the 321 stainless steel is a kind of titanium – stabilization of 18/8 austenitic stainless steel (304), a small amount of titanium makes it in carbide precipitation temperature range, that’s 425-850℃, not appear intergranular corrosion after heating, with good strength, resistance to oxidation peeling and aqueous corrosion resistance.

The 321H is a high-carbon version of the 321 with higher high-temperature strength and is primarily used for high-temperature applications around 900°C. The disadvantage of 321 is that titanium has poor welding arc transition, so it cannot be used as welding material, while 347 containing niobium also plays the role of carbide stabilization, and can also be transferred through welding arc. 347 is standard welding material for 321 stainless steel welding and occasionally used as the base metal. Let’s see their chemical and mechanical comparison below:

 

Chemical composition comparison

Grades C Mn Si P S Cr Ni Mo N Other
321 0.08 2.00 0.75 0.045 0.03 17.0-19.0 9.0-12.0 / 0.1 Ti=5(C+N)0.7
347 0.08 2.00 0.75 0.045 0.03 17.0-19.0 9.0-13.0 / / Nb=10(C+N)1.0

We can see that the difference between them is the addition of  Ti and Nb. Due to the addition of stabilized element titanium, 321 can resist the formation of chromium carbide at 426℃~815℃, so it has excellent intergranular corrosion resistance and high-temperature performance and has higher creep and stress fracture properties than 304 and 304L. In addition, 321 also has good low-temperature toughness and excellent formability and welding characteristics, without annealing after welding.

347 Stainless steel is a niobium-containing Austenitic stainless steel and 347H is its high carbon version. 347 can be seen as a niobium-adding version based on 304. Nb, a rare earth element, has a similar effect to titanium in refining grains,  can resist intergranular corrosion and promoting aging hardening.

 

Physical property comparison

Grades Tensile strength, Mpa Yield strength, Mpa Elongation(50mm) Hardness, HB
321 515 205 40 217
347 515 205 40 201

 

Typical applications

347&347H stainless steel has better high-temperature performance than 304 and 321. It is widely used in aviation, petrochemical, food, papermaking and other industries, such as exhaust pipe and branch pipe of aero engine, hot gas pipe of turbine compressor and parts working under low load and temperature not exceeding 850℃.

The addition of titanium to the 321 makes it more suitable for where need high temperature and good corrosion resisting applications. It is suitable for 304 sensitized and 304L applications with insufficient high-temperature strength. Typical applications include thermal expansion joints, bellows, aircraft exhaust system components, heating element sleeves, furnace components, and heat exchangers.

What’s 18Ni Maraging steel?

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What’s the difference between 316L and 904L steel?

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Commonly known as “medical-grade steel”, 316L stainless steel is not only used to make jewelry and medical scalpels due to its low allergenic properties but also used by watch manufacturing companies to make watchbands. 904L stainless steel is Austenitic stainless steel made by Outokumpu Company in Finland based on 316L stainless steel, is a super Austenite with low carbon content and high alloying designed for corrosive environments such as dilute sulfuric acid.

904L stainless steel increases the content of chromium, nickel and molybdenum and adds a certain amount of copper, which will bring about a change in performance, making 904L stainless steel more wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant, but at the same time, there is not much difference between the two in hardness, let’s show their difference with the table below:

Grades C Si Mn Cr Ni Mo P S Cu
316L ≤0.03 ≤0.1 ≤0.2 16-18 10-14 2-3 ≤0.04 ≤0.03 /
904L ≤0.02 ≤0.1 ≤0.2 19-23 23-28 4-5 ≤0.04 ≤0.03 1-2

 

It is not difficult to see that 904L alloy elements chromium, nickel, molybdenum is more than 1.6 times of 316L stainless steel, 1%-2% copper makes 904L stainless steel has stronger corrosion resistance and wear resistance than 316L stainless steel. The 904 has a lower carbon content (C), so the polished 904L steel pipe or sheet steel has a better surface, and the same volume of 904L stainless steel is much heavier than the 316L stainless steel. Their Rockwell strength (HRB) is less than 95, and the strength is almost 490MPa. So it is completely wrong to say that 904L stainless steel is harder than 316L stainless steel.

Rolex was the first company to put 904L into watch manufacturing. In 1985, Rolex produced the watch case made of 904L steel replaced 316L steel. 904L steel contains more chromium, which helps to form a corrosion-resistant coating on the surface of metal materials. And “anti-corrosion” is also the benefit of the Rolex watches we often mention, but here “anti-corrosion” does not have any practical significance, because 316L steel has been completely enough daily corrosion. 904L steel is indeed better in corrosion resistance than 316L steel, but it does not mean that 316L steel is not good. For consumers, as a watch case material,  904L steel’s “propaganda” effect is better than the actual role of “anti-corrosion” itself.

Not just in the watch industry, chemical fields shows more advantages., 904L offers better corrosion resistance than 316L and even 317L. The addition of 1.5% copper has excellent corrosion resistance to reducing acids such as sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid, and also has excellent intergranular corrosion resistance to stress corrosion, pitting corrosion and crevice corrosion caused by chloride ion. In the concentration range of 0-98% pure sulfuric acid, 904L can be used at temperatures up to 40 ℃. Of all the phosphoric acids, 904L is more resistant to corrosion than ordinary stainless steel. Ordinary Austenitic stainless steels may be sensitive to stress corrosion at temperatures above 60℃ in a chloride-rich environment, and this sensitivity can be reduced by increasing the nickel content of the stainless steels. Due to its high nickel content, 904L is highly resistant to stress corrosion cracking in chloride solutions, concentrated hydroxide solutions, and hydrogen sulfide-rich environments.