What Is Stainless Steel?
Nickel (plus carbon, manganese, and nitrogen) promotes the formation of austenite, and chromium (plus silicon, molybdenum, and niobium) encourages the formation of ferrite so the structure of weld in stainless steels can be largely predicted on the basis of their chemical composition. Because of their different microstructures, the alloy groups have both different welding characteristics and susceptibility to defects.