What is Stainless Steel Scrap Used For?
Stainless steel offers countless benefits and advantages, which is why is is used so extensively in any industry you care to name. One of these advantages, the exceptional recyclability of the alloy, grows in importance all the time as the need to protect our environment and rely less on virgin materials becomes ever more pressing.
With the vast majority of recyclable materials comes a serious problem: the recycled material produced is not of as high a quality as before. This is not so with stainless steel, which retains its properties no matter how many times it is recycled.
Data from the International Stainless Steel Forum shows that any stainless steel item contains an average of 60% recycled material in its composition. This figure is only set to grow further; a study by the Bureau of International Recycling (Stainless Steel and Special Alloys Committee) found that Europe's demand for stainless steel scrap in 2024 increased by a full 50% as compared to the previous year.
The answer to the question posed in the title of this edition of the BS Stainless blog is, quite simply, everything! As noted, recycled stainless steel is just as effective as virgin stainless steel and so the recycled material can be used in the same ways. The most common use for scrap is to produce new stainless steel but it can also be used in the creation of other metals like carbon steel and ferrous alloys.
Stainless steel scrap can also be melted down to make castings and forgings, both of which are extremely versatile. Castings are used for many purposes such as creating fittings, valves and pumps while forgings facilitate the fabrication of industrial machinery parts along with a variety of automotive and aircraft components.
A lesser-known use for scrap is to produce stainless steel powder, which has all the qualities of stainless steel including its exceptional strength, durability and resistance to corrosion. The size of the ground particles can be finely tuned to suit different applications.
There are hundreds of different uses for stainless steel powder, one of which is as a coating that imbues the product being coated with protection from corrosion, resistance to wear and a pleasing aesthetic finish. It is also used in catalytic convertors to help control emissions and can even be added to the conductive inks that are widely used in the manufacturing of electronic components. A rapidly growing sector that utilises stainless steel powder is 3D printing, where the material is used as a feed stock.
Check out the BS Stainless website to learn more about recycling stainless steel, along with full details of the comprehensive range of stainless steel products we supply and the applications they are used for.