SAE 304 stainless steel SAE 304 stainless steel SAE 304 stainless steel is the most common stainless steel. The steel contains both chromium (between 18–20%) and nickel (between 8–10.5%) metals as the main non-iron constituents. It is an austenitic stainless steel. It is less electrically and thermally conductive than carbon steel and is essentially non-magnetic. It has a higher corrosion resistance than regular steel and is widely used because of the ease in which it is formed into various shapes. The composition was developed by W. H. Hatfield at Firth-Vickers in 1924 and was marketed under the trade name “Staybrite 18/8”. It is specified
Stainless steel more refined microstructure; this in turn results in better mechanical properties. However, stainless steel is not used as much as materials like Ti6Al4V in the 3D printing industry; this is because manufacturing stainless steel products via traditional methods is currently much more economically competitive. Stainless steel is 100% recyclable. An average stainless steel object is composed of about 60% recycled material of which approximately 40% originates from end-of-life products and about 60% comes from manufacturing processes. According to the International Resource Panel's Metal Stocks in Society report, the per capita stock of stainless steel in use in society is 80–180