2024-11-22
Stainless steel-Is Stainless Steel Magnetic?
At its base, stainless steel is magnetic and has a ferritic microstructure. This is due to the inclusion of chromium, which is present in all forms of stainless steel. To harden this basic stainless steel, we add carbon, changing the microstructure to martensitic. Both of these variations are magnetic.Increasing the chromium content to around 18% and adding nickel at about 10% to the alloy changes the microstructure to austenitic and makes the metal non-magnetic. This is the most commonly used stainless steel. The chromium increases the alloy’s corrosion resistance, while the nickel improves the grade of stainless steel.The two variants of stainless steel most commonly used are 304 and 316, both paramagnetic. Paramagnetism is a phenomenon where metals generally display non-magnetic behavior, except when in the presence of a powerful magnet. Here, the magnet’s movement relative to the metal induces an electrical current inside the metal, causing it to react to the metal. This induced magnetism disappears when the magnet is removed.