If iron cobalt and nickel are magnetic (which I think is the right term, but it feels wrong since magnets stick but it doesn’t magnet to other steel) then why does using nickel to make stainless steel render steel non-magnetic?
Or is my metallurgical understanding just completely off?
In: Physics
Austenitic grades of stainless steel like 304 (also known as 18-8) are non magnetic due to austenite’s crystalline structure being non magnetic. You can cold work stainless to force the austenite to change into martensite, which is magnetic.
There are other grades like ferritic and martensitic stainless as well as ferritic-austenitic which are called duplex stainless that are also magnetic.
Source: I made pipe fittings from all kinds of grades of carbon and stainless steels and nickel alloys.
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