Stainless steels are an impressive family of high Chromium alloys and offer good to excellent corrosion resistance in many environments. Many people are familiar with stainless steels in their home environment, in restaurants, in healthcare settings and for architectural applications. Stainless steels are being and can further be effectively and extensively used in the building and infrastructure sector to provide one or all of the following (depending on the project):
- structural resilience in corrosive environments
- improved operational reliability of people moving and other structural assets
- low maintenance and low-cost structures
- low emissions assets over their operational service lives
- time and materials efficient applications when selected for modular structures
Stainless steels are often discounted as suitable materials for the built environment as they are seen as high-cost materials. They do however, when correctly selected for each application, offer the ability to lightweight structures with no loss of structural integrity. Furthermore, they can offer corrosion prevention in locations where corrosion is often invisible which thereby ensures ongoing structural and/or operational integrity. Stainless steels are a super family of materials which are often not fully understood.
On Thursday 12 September 2024, worldstainless Secretary-General, Tim Collins, explained why stainless steels, should be part of our routine materials palette, for the built environment.