Use of stainless steels in the industry: recent and future developments

In a first part, this paper presents the reason why during the last fifteen years the industry move from conventional material to more technically adapted or only more economical solutions. Several examples are described: the use of lean duplex UR2304, duplex UR2205 or superduplex UR2507 in the potable water production from seawater, the use of superduplex grades UR2507Cu (UR52N+) and superaustenitic UR904 (URB6), UR28 (URB28) and UR31 in the production of phosphoric acid, the use of UR2205 for chemical transport or storage, In a second part, mechanical and corrosion resistance properties of the new Mo free lean duplex UR2202 will be detailed and commented. This material has been recently developed as alternative to 300-series like 304L and in some cases 316L and are less susceptible to nickel and molybdenum price fluctuation. Among others, this new material appears to be a great alternative to austenitics in potable or industrial water applications. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).