Stainless Steel316/316L

Stainless steel SS-316 is an excellent material for use with most organic systems. A few organic acids and organic halides can under certain conditions hydrolyze to form inorganic halogen acids, which will attack SS-316. Acetic, formic and other organic acids are routinely handled in SS-316. SS-316 is not normally the material of choice for inorganic acid systems. At ambient temperature it does offer useful resistance to dilute sulfuric, sulfurous, phosphoric and nitric acids, but sulfuric, phosphoric and nitric acids readily attack SS-316 at elevated temperature and pressures. Halogen acids attack all forms of stainless steel rapidly, even at low temperature and in dilute solutions. Although SS-316 offers excellent resistance to surface corrosion by caustics, they can cause stress corrosion cracking in stainless pressure vessels. This phenomenon begins to appear at temperature just above 100 ?C and has been the most common cause of corrosion failure in stainless laboratory vessels. SS-316 does offer good resistance to ammonia and to most ammonia compounds. Halogen salts can cause severepitting in all stainless steels. Chlorides can cause stress corrosion cracking, but many other salt solutions can be handled in stainless vessels, particularly neutral or alkaline salts. At moderate temperature and pressures, SS-316 can be used with most commercial gases. In scrupulously anhydrous systems even hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride and chlorine can be used in stainless steel. Essentially all the SS-316 produced today also meets the specifications for SS-316L, low carbon stainless steel.