Structural Stainless Steel—By the Letter

Do you need an ‘S’ beam? How about a ‘T’ shape or ‘L’ angle? When it comes to stainless steel angle, beam, channel, and tee, it’s hard not to get caught up in what can seem like an alphabet soup of products.

Instead, focus on two critical factors when finding the right grade for your project: strength and corrosion resistance.

Strength: Your structural must be able to bear the weight of an object. Take common grades like 304 and 316, which contain nickel. Nickel content helps to increase strength and hardness without sacrificing ductility and toughness.

Corrosion resistance: It’s a good idea to ensure you work with grades that offer high levels of corrosion resistance.

But aren’t all grades of stainless steel corrosion resistant? Technically that answer is yes, but the higher levels of chromium contained within a grade, the higher the level of corrosion resistance. 316 also contains molybdenum, which adds additional corrosion resistance to this grade.

Stainless steel structural typically come in four different shapes:

Stainless Steel Angle

What they are: Hot rolled or laser fused and come in a variety of stock sizes.

Commonly used grades: 304/304L and 316/316L stainless angles are weldable and machinable with appropriate techniques.

Corrosion resistant, excellent weldability, and good formability.