Looking for a welder for your Stainless Steel Welding Jobs. You found the right place. I can help with all your stainless steel projects. We also do small jobs Call Dave at 949-452-0770.

Although welding stainless steel may not be as difficult as welding aluminum, the metal does have its specific properties that vary from your more common steels.

When MIG welding on stainless, you usually have three choices of transfer depending on your equipment: spray-arc, short-circuiting, or pulsed-arc transfer.

Stainless steels or, more precisely, corrosion-resisting steels are a family of iron-base alloys having excellent resistance to corrosion. These steels do not rust and strongly resist attack by a great many liquids, gases, and chemicals. Many of the stainless steels have good low-temperature toughness and ductility. Most of them exhibit good strength properties and resistance to scaling at high temperatures. All stainless steels contain iron as the main element and chromium in amounts ranging from about 11% to 30%. Chromium provides the basic corrosion resistance to stainless steels. There are about 15 types of straight chromium stainless steels.

The stainless steel of choice in the food services industry is the austenitic 
300 series.  The stainless used for good pots (like Vollrath) is usually 304.  
Less expensive pots are often made of 303 alloy stainless which is less 
weldable and is quickly attacked by chlorinated cleaners.  Other stainless 
kitchen equipment, like utensils, are typically Ferritic stainless, which has 
less Chromium and Nickel and is less acid-neutral.

Nickel is added to certain of the stainless steels, which are known as chromium-nickel stainless steel. The addition of nickel reduces the thermal conductivity and decreases the electrical conductivity. The chromium-nickel steels belong to AISI/SAE 300 series of stainless steels. They are nonmagnetic and have austerity micro structure. These stainless steels contain small amounts of carbon because this element has tendency to make chromium carbides, which are not corrosion resistant. Carbon is undesirable particularly in the 18% chromium, 8% nickel group.

Manganese is added to some of the chromium-nickel alloys. Usually these steels contain slightly less nickel since the chromium-nickel-manganese alloys were developed originally to conserve nickel. In these alloys, a small portion of nickel is replaced by manganese, generally in a two-to-one relationship. The AISI/SAE 200 series of stainless steels are the chromium-nickel-manganese series. These steels have an austerity micro structure and they are nonmagnetic.

Molybdenum is also included in some stainless steel alloys. Molybdenum is added to improve the creep resistance of the steel at elevated temperatures. It will also increase resistance to pitting and corrosion in many applications.

Stainless steels can be welded using several different procedures such as shielded metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, and gas metal arc welding.

These steels are slightly more difficult to weld than mild carbon steels. The physical properties of stainless steel are different from mild steel and this makes it weld differently. These differences are:

• Lower melting temperature,
• Lower coefficient of thermal conductivity,
• Higher coefficient of thermal expansion,
• Higher electrical resistance.

What Makes A Steel Stainless? 
The alloying addition of Chromium and Nickel to the iron creates a significant 
percentage of those atoms at the surface, which form tenacious oxides that 
seal the surface and prevent oxidation of the iron.  The process known as 
"Passivation" for stainless steel, as discussed in the article "Care and 
Feeding of Stainless Steel" by Micah Millspaw in the July/August issue of 
Brewing Techniques, is a common means of improving this protective oxide layer 
through the use of oxidizing acids.  Anodizing aluminum alloys is similar in 
that a solid aluminum oxide barrier is created to prevent further corrosion.  
Anodized (black) aluminum cookware (Magnalite, Calphalon) is acid neutral / 
acidic food resistant like stainless steel because of this heavy oxide layer.  
Plain (bright) aluminum cookware does not have the degree of surface oxides 
necessary to prevent reaction with corrosive media.


Joining of Steel and Brass/Copper
Stainless steel is routinely welded, but it must be done under an inert gas 
atmosphere.  The most reliable method for welding stainless is the Tungsten 
Inert Gas (TIG) process, aka. GTAW and Helio-Arc.  TIG welding has the 
advantage of a small weld head, lower heat input is required and filler metal 
is optional.  The other common welding methods for stainless steel, Metal 
Inert Gas (MIG) and Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), are not as well suited 
for welding thin sections like beer keg walls.  MIG is commonly used for all 
types of stainless welding but the weld gun must be held close to the work and 
this decreases its effectiveness in tight areas.  MIG equipment will be more 
available to a do-it-yourselfer and should provide a satisfactory joint.  SMAW 
is commonly used for welding thicker pipe and tanks.  It has the disadvantage 
of obscuring of the weld joint during the pass and the slag must be removed 
between passes. Equipment and electrode filler rods are readily available, 
however this welding process is not recommended for this application.  The 
welder does not have the control necessary to insure a good weld.

The properties are not the same for all stainless steels, but they are the same for those having the same micro structure. Regarding this, stainless steels from the same metallurgical class have the similar welding characteristics and are grouped according to the metallurgical structure with respect to welding.

ALUMINUM & STAINLESS STEEL WELDING ORANGE COUNTY 949-452-0770 ...

WELDERS IN OC Our Welding Company is located in Orange County California. ... Aluminum Welds Stainless Steel Welding Titanium Welds AWS D1.1 Certified

STAINLESS STEEL WELDER IN OC

ALUMINUM AND STAINLESS STEEL WELDING IN ORANGE COUNTY 949-452-0770 WELDING ... WELDERS IN OC Our Welding Company is located in Orange County California