Industrial & Manufacturing Blog
Stainless steel is one of the most popular materials used in a variety of industrial and manufacturing environments, and especially for aerospace engineering. There are three important reasons why.
High Strength
Stainless steel is incredibly strong and can handle quite a bit of abuse. Once airplanes started to be made out of metal it was quickly discovered that the plane itself and many of the parts could easily be forged from stainless steel. Aerospace design not only has to take the amount of force generated and applied to the plane itself into account, but also the weight of the plane. In this case, steel is again useful - it has a very favorable strength-to-weight ratio that is only beat out by some titanium alloys, which are frequently more expensive. This strength can make or break some aerospace forgings, such as with the "Jesus nut" present on helicopters.
Flexibility
Aerospace forgings also need to be made from materials that can actually be worked with from the design, manufacturing, and installation phase onwards. Stainless steel is useful here as well, as there are several different stainless steel alloys ready to be used by anyone looking to make high-quality aerospace forgings. Additionally, any kind of steel is easy to work with and can be easily manipulated into any forging needed. This flexibility allows one batch of stainless steel to be made into a variety of different forgings without extra effort to add or remove different elements as with other metal alloys.
Less Corrosion
Finally, one of the best qualities of stainless steel is its ability to resist rust and other forms of oxidizing corrosion due to the fact that it is an iron and chromium alloy. This means that the aerospace forgings that airplanes and other works of mechanical engineering can rely on this strong material for years without it quickly breaking down as other materials would, such as copper, which is relatively soft. This lack of rust also means that any oils or lubrication used also works better as nothing is attempting to grind on worn away metal. Stainless steel can still be worn down due to erosion and the net amount of force applied over time, but rust will never be a problem.
Stainless steel has a variety of uses for any industrial needs but especially for aerospace forgings. Aerospace technology requires plenty of material that is strong, easy to manipulate, and won't decay as quickly as other materials. This makes stainless steel a popular choice with aerospace engineers and aerospace forgings manufacturers.
Share15 July 2020
Where do you think we would be if the manufacturing industry shut down? We would not have new cars or buses. The packaging that our food comes in would not be available, and even things like children's toys and clothing would be in short supply. Going back to making everything by hand would be quite the burden, so we really rely on the manufacturing industry for quality of life and peace of mind. You don't have to work in this industry yourself to become more informed about it. Learn about the people and companies that make the products we adore on this website.
