Blog Nickel-Based Alloys

About 60% of the nickel in the world ends up as a component of stainless steel. It is selected because of its strength, toughness, and resistance to corrosion.  Duplex stainless steels typically contain about 5% nickel, austenitics around 10% nickel, and the super austenitics over 20%. Heat resistant grades often contain over 35% nickel.  Nickel-based alloys generally contain 50% nickel or more. 

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Nickel Alloy Material Properties

In addition to a majority nickel content, these materials and may contain significant amounts of chromium and molybdenum. Nickel-based metals were developed to provide greater strength at high temperatures, and greater corrosion resistance than could be obtained from iron and steel. They are significantly more expensive than ferrous metals; but because of their long life, nickel alloys may be the most cost-effective long term material selection.

Special nickel based-alloys are widely used for their corrosion resistance and properties at dramatically elevated temperature. Whenever unusually severe conditions are expected one could consider these alloys because of their unique resistance properties. Each of these alloys is balanced with nickel, chromium, molybdenum, and other elements.

There are thousands of applications for nickel as a material and nickel-based alloys. A small sampling of those uses would include:

• Defense, especially marine applications
• Energy generation
• Gas turbines, both flight, and land-based, especially for high-temperature exhaust
• Industrial furnaces and heat exchangers
• Food preparation equipment
• Medical equipment
• In nickel plating, for corrosion resistance
• As a catalyst for chemical reactions

It is worth understanding how nickel-based materials may be an effective solution for those applications requiring high temperature corrosion resistance.

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Stainless steel and nickel alloy are both corrosion-resistant materials and are widely used in industrial production and daily life. Although both have excellent corrosion resistance, there are still major differences in chemical composition, operating temperature, mechanical properties, application fields and price.

From the perspective of chemical composition, stainless steel is mainly an iron alloy, while the main component of nickel alloy is nickel. The iron content of stainless steel can reach more than 65%, while the iron content of nickel alloys is usually less than 50%. In contrast, nickel alloys have a higher nickel content, which can reach more than 30% or even more than 70%. The chromium content of the two is similar, about 20%, and chromium is a key element in improving corrosion resistance. However, the molybdenum content of nickel alloys is usually higher than that of stainless steel. Molybdenum has good resistance to reduction corrosion, which is one of the reasons why the overall corrosion resistance of nickel alloys is better than that of stainless steel.

In terms of operating temperature, stainless steel is usually used in normal temperature conditions, while nickel alloys such as Inconel, Incoloy and Hastelloy are basically used in high temperature environments. This is mainly because it is difficult for iron elements to maintain a stable structure at high temperatures, while nickel can maintain the austenitic structure of the alloy well at high temperatures. Therefore, only nickel-based alloys can perform well at high temperatures. Although some austenitic stainless steels also contain nickel, their nickel content is still low.

In terms of corrosion resistance, nickel alloys are generally superior to stainless steel. This is not only because nickel itself has excellent corrosion resistance, but also because nickel alloys have a higher molybdenum content. In complex corrosive environments, most stainless steels are difficult to resist this corrosion, and nickel alloys have developed a variety of special grades for different corrosive environments.

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In terms of mechanical properties, the situation is more complicated. High-strength and low-strength materials exist in both stainless steel and nickel alloys, making comprehensive comparisons difficult. But as far as ordinary austenitic stainless steel and nickel alloys are concerned, the latter tends to have higher strength because nickel alloys can enhance their strength by adding more solid solution elements. Likewise, its mechanical properties are better than austenitic stainless steel at high temperatures. In addition, martensitic stainless steel can be strengthened by quenching. After quenching, its strength will be higher than that of ordinary nickel alloys, but this high strength can only be maintained at room temperature, and a certain degree of corrosion resistance is sacrificed.

In terms of application fields, stainless steel and nickel alloys overlap greatly because both are corrosion-resistant alloys. But there are also three main differences: First, as mentioned above, stainless steel is not suitable for high-temperature applications, and nickel alloys are mostly needed in high-temperature applications; second, stainless steel is widely used in civil fields, such as tableware, medical, construction, etc. Nickel alloys such as Monel, Inconel, Incoloy and Hastelloy are basically only used in industrial and military fields; thirdly, the corrosion resistance of stainless steel is limited to oxidizing environments. If the corrosion environment becomes special and complex, most stainless steels will be difficult to resist this kind of corrosion. Corrosion, and nickel alloys have developed a variety of special grades for different corrosive environments.

Finally, in terms of price, the price of nickel alloy is much higher than that of stainless steel, which is mainly determined by the huge price difference between nickel and iron. In addition, the price of molybdenum is even several times that of nickel, and nickel alloys usually have higher molybdenum content, which also makes them more expensive. In addition, under normal conditions, the strength of nickel alloys is higher than that of stainless steel, which also leads to increased processing difficulty of nickel alloys. High processing difficulty is also an important factor in the higher price of nickel alloys. Finally, due to the more complex composition of nickel alloys and stricter control of trace elements, this also increases the requirements for raw materials, thereby increasing the price of the alloy.

In short, although stainless steel and nickel alloys are both corrosion-resistant materials, nickel alloys have better performance than stainless steel in most cases. The important difference between the two is that stainless steel is often used at room temperature, while nickel alloy is often used at high temperatures. Of course, the better performance of nickel alloys will inevitably bring higher prices. We offer a variety of nickel alloy materials for you to choose from, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us via .

Tianjin Anton Metal Manufacture Co., Ltd. is a company specializing in the production of various nickel-based alloys, Hastelloy alloys and high-temperature alloy materials. The company was established in with a registered capital of 10.0 million, specializing in the production and sales of alloy materials. Anton Metal's products are widely used in aerospace, chemical industry, electric power, automobile, nuclear energy and other fields, and can also provide customized alloy material solutions according to customer needs. If you need to know the price consultation of alloy materials or provide customized alloy material solutions, please feel free to contact the sales staff.

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