This chapter gives an overview on the various types of stainless steels and their general
classification based on microstructures. This chapter also goes through briefly the history of the
discovery of ‘stainlessness’ and the status quo of stainless steels production in several major economies.
Motivations for writing this book and some of the new applications that utilise stainless steels (which
are covered in chapter 10) are given at the end of this chapter.
Keywords: Stainless steel, carbon steel, high nitrogen stainless steel, Pt-alloyed stainless steel, J phase, G
phase, stainlessness, retention of stiffness, retention of strength, Fe-Cr system, severe plastic deformation,
stacking fault energy.
