how is stainless steel made? what are the things used in making it?
There are different recipes, and different types of steel are made for different purposes. They all share high temperatures, which allows extra carbon to bind with the iron. This is the main thing that makes steel stainless, or rustproof. Other metals such as chromium, molybdenum, magnesium etc. are often added to increase tensile (twisting) strength, flexibility, etc.
There are 3 basic stainless steels. The Martinsitic, the ferritic, and the Austinistic. The spelling may be wrong on all of them. (Got out of school in 1966 with my metallurgy in 1965. The Ferritic is magnetic and has some resistance to corrosion but the Martinsitic is much more resistant to corrosion. The Austinitic stainless is very resistant to corrosion. The differences are the amount of Chrome and Nickel in the batches. The Austinitic has an 18/8 ratio of Chromium and Nickel with the rest Iron and minor ingredients. The carbon content is very important and these steels are often made in small batches with close monitoring of composition and carbon content. Scrap metals are frequently used with the chrome and nickel being added as carefully selected scrap or even fresh crude stocks. Electric melting is frequent to avoid contamination.
