Does Stainless Steel Rust Malaysia | Will Stainless Steel Rust

Stainless steels are steels that are reinforced by adding chromium into it. Most stainless steel consists of around 16-36% of chromium. The presence of chromium will prevent the steel from being corroded.

Normal steel is made up of iron. And when the iron exposed to oxygen, a layer of iron oxide, commonly known as rust will be formed. This process is called oxidation. The layer of rust does not stick to the surface of the steel once formed. Instead, it falls or breaks off from the surface of the steel, exposing it to further oxidation and slowly corrode the steel away. In stainless steel, however, the presence of chromium will prevent the iron from being oxidized. This is because chromium is an element that has a higher affinity towards oxygen compared to iron. Thus, the chromium in stainless steel will form a layer of chromium oxide which unlike iron oxide, will stick to the surface of the steel and does not spall off. This prevents the steel from being oxidized further, essentially protecting the steel from being corroded.

However, stainless steels are not entirely unsusceptible from corrosion. There are several reasons as to why stainless steel would suffer from rusting. The first is when the surface of the stainless steel is tainted by a certain amount of steel or carbon. This could occur when the stainless steel is rubbed against another metal that isn’t stainless, for example, brushing a stainless steel spoon with a steel wool. This will cause the iron from the steel wool to from a thin film of steel on the surface of the spoon. After being exposed to air and moist environment, the film of iron will form a layer of rust, as it does not contain any chromium in it.

Another cause of stainless steel to rust is when it is exposed to high temperatures of around 500-800°C. This is rather uncommon, but is does occur. An example is when the stainless steel is exposed to welding. A process called sensitization will occur where the chromium is bonded with carbon forming carbides. The carbide will eventually reside at the boundaries of the stainless steel, resulting in the lack of chromium at the boundaries. This causes the chromium oxide layer to be disrupted and exposing the stainless steel to rusting.

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