CTE for Stainless Steels

Here is a histogram of the CTE's for a large number of stainless steels. The most obvious characteristic is that the distribution has two distinct peaks.

The CTE for 300 series stainless steel runs in the 14 to 19 ppm/°C range, while that of 400 series stainless steel is between 10 and 12 ppm/°C.

Thus it is critically important to know the type of stainless you are using; the bias between the two main types of steel being nearly 50 %.

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Date Created: Monday, October 15, 2001
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 09, 2004