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The McIlvaine Company has been making predictions about the air, water, energy (AWE) stainless steel market for decades. The political winds have been of minor importance; the big variables have been in economics. The new reality is that political forces will shape the AWE market in the coming years in an unprecedented way.

Of all the materials used for bridges over the centuries, stainless steel will likely prove the most effective and durable. Europe led the way in using duplex grades, though some use was also made of austenitics. In the USA, a ferritic-martensitic dual-phase grade has found favor, but duplex grades are being assessed and more frequently applied. Among the reasons for this are the excellent mechanical properties of duplex, its corrosion resistance, and its favorable strength-to-weight ratio.

High Nickel alloyed stainless steels are categorized as having Chromium + Nickel greater than 50%, and most of these alloys have Nickel greater than 30%. These materials have been used widely in petrochemical, chemical, refinery, and organic acid industries, due to their excellent overall corrosion resistance to various types of media and harsh environments involving high temperatures.

Why do things crack? A stress is applied that is strong enough to separate the material. Metals are theoretically much stronger than we find in practice, and this is due to “artifacts” within the microstructures that act as stress concentrators.

The City of Hamilton, Ontario began treating its water in 1859. The facility started the way most water treatment plants did, as a resource for fire protection.

Reliability goes beyond the technical details of industrial assets; it is a mindset. Enhancing equipment performance not only optimizes operations but also impacts human lives. The lack of reliability results in leaks, uncontrolled releases, and catastrophic equipment failures that could jeopardize the workplace. Tami Glasper, the Reliability Manager at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. spoke to Stainless Steel World Americas and provided valuable insights into her role and the critical intersection of reliability and safety.

For decades, the use of extremely toxic and environmentally detrimental cyanide in the hydrometallurgical extraction of gold has been a target of research looking for greener alternatives. One promising alternative for cyanide is non-toxic thiosulfate solutions. In fact, for carbonaceous gold ores, the recovery of gold has been shown to improve with thiosulfate solutions versus cyanide. This is attributed to the thiosulfate compound with gold not adsorbing on the carbonaceous ore, unlike that of cyanide compound with gold. In addition, hydrometallurgical leaching with thiosulfate is more economically viable versus cyanide due to the lower costs of thiosulfate salts versus that of cyanide.

Stainless steel is used in multiple industries (e.g., food, medical, chemical, oil and gas) and various manufacturing processes for aesthetic purposes and high resistance to corrosion in harsh environments. There are five basic families of stainless steel: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation hardened. Of these, austenitic is considered the most resistant to corrosion.

The Air, Water, Energy (AWE) industry, defined broadly, is a market of nearly 1 trillion dollars. Stainless steel is used in the structure and parts in more than 15% of the applications. Stainless is selected to protect either the hardware or the product being manufactured. Various grades of stainless are selected based on corrosiveness, abrasion, pressure, and contamination. Sheets are used in ductwork, vessels, and components such as mist eliminators.

A company helped a major steel product manufacturer to rectify downtime issues caused by frequent filter changeouts at its steel rolling mill. Unplanned downtime can result in reduced margins and loss of business. Therefore, finding the root cause of the problem was a priority; preferably without having to take the mill offline during the investigation.