301 full hard stainless steel is the form of austenitic stainless steel. The austenitic stainless steel family contains more Chromium, Nickel, and Manganese contents than other types of stainless steel. 301 stainless steel performs a cold rolling process to achieve a full hard condition. This process increases the alloy’s hardness and fatigue life.
The 301 full hard is the best choice, where excellent hardness and toughness are required. The combination of toughness and hardness makes 301 full hard stainless steel ideal for specific purposes. Common elements primarily used in stainless steel alloys are Chromium, Nickel, Manganese, Carbon, and Nitrogen. Carbon is the critical element for increasing the toughness, strength, and hardness of type 301.
If you are looking for 301 full stainless steel for your project and want to know more about this material, then this article is beneficial.
What is 301 full hard stainless steel?
A chromium-nickel austenitic stainless steel that can achieve high strengths and ductility by cold working is type 301full hard stainless steel. Heat treatment cannot be used to harden it. We can achieve the material’s hardness through cold working. Type 301 full hard is not magnetic when it is annealed, but it gets more magnetic as it undergoes cold working.
When cold worked, this stainless steel alloy with Chromium and Nickel offers excellent strength and good ductility. Similar to type 302 and type 304 steel, type 301 full hard stainless steel exhibits good corrosion resistance.
301 full hard stainless steel chemical properties
The chemical composition of 301 full hard stainless steel is given below.
| Elements | Max | Min |
| Carbon, C | 0.15% | 0.15% |
| Manganese, Mn | 2.0% | 2.0% |
| Silicon, Si | 0.75% | 0.75% |
| Chromium, Cr | 16.00% | 18.00% |
| Nickel, Ni | 6.00% | 8.00% |
| Phosphorus, P | 0.045% | 0.045% |
| Sulfur, S | 0.030% | 0.030% |
| Iron, Fe | 73% | 73% |
| Nitrogen, N | 0.10% | 0.10% |
301 full hard stainless steel physical properties
The 301 full hard stainless steel’s physical properties are listed in the following table.
| Density | Melting range | Modulus of Elasticity |
| 8.03 g/cm3 | 1399-1421 °C | 174 GPa |
301 full hard stainless steel mechanical properties
301 full hard stainless steel is commonly used in industry due to its outstanding properties. The following table shows the mechanical properties of 301 full hard stainless steel.
| Tensile strength | Yield strength | Elongation | Hardness Vickers |
| 1320 MPa | 1030 MPa | 0-5% | 430-490 HV |
301 full hard stainless steel applications
The 301 full hard stainless steel is used in many applications due to its excellent strength and corrosion resistance properties. Here are some essential applications of 301 full hard materials.
- Coverings for the wheels, roof drainage
- Belt conveyors
- Trim for subway and railroad trains and automobiles
- Hose clamps, trailer and truck bodies, and springs
- Structural components for kitchen appliances in aircraft
- Vehicle trailers
- Architectural and automotive rim
- Aerospace, decorative, industrial, food and beverage utensils and dinnerware
- Conveyor belts are also used for various industrial purposes, including roof drainage.
How is 301 full hard stainless steel manufactured?
Manufacturing 301 full hard stainless steel strips is a multi-step process, starting from preparing raw material and then performing cold rolling, annealing, cleaning, tension leveling, and slitting.
Raw Material
We first need the raw material of mother coils to make one piece of 301 full hard stainless steel flat strip. Our partnership with Posco, one of the world’s largest steel producer, ensure our raw materials are of high quality. When the mother coils arrived, our quality control experts strictly checked the material’s thickness, width, and surface before moving on to the following process.
Cold Rolling
Through cold rolling by our most advanced Sendzimir 20-roller mill, we can produce materials with thicknesses ranging from 0.03 mm to 1.5 mm. These large rollers convert the stainless steel slabs into thin sheets.
The cold rolling process produces the required thickness of the 301 full hard stainless steel strip, assuring the strip’s good polish, surface, and flatness to meet international requirements.
Bright Annealing
In this process, we performed a metallurgical operation on the entire body of the stainless steel strip during bright annealing. We can change the structure of the stainless steel strip using the heat treatment technique to obtain the required qualities. The stainless steel can be cooled using a continuous annealing line.
Work Hardening
The process of work hardening involves deforming a material to make it stronger. Overall, 301 full hard stainless steel sheets harden quickly; the actual rate depends on the grade. Compared to other grades, 301 austenitic sheets of steel harden more quickly.
Degreasing
Due to oil and grease, the stainless steel strip’s surface becomes dirty during the rolling process. Cleaning or degreasing is how we use chemicals to clean the surface of 301 full hard stainless steel strips. The method uses the chemical reaction between the alkaline agent and the grease on the stainless steel strip surface to remove the grease.
Tension Leveling
A good strip shape can be obtained by tension leveled. After straightening by stretching and bending, the wavy edge, wavy shape, scoop, and mild sickle bend of the strip surface can be eliminated. Thus, the straightness of the thin 301 full-hard stainless steel can be significantly improved.
Precision Slitting
We equip with a series of state-of-the-art precision slitting machines to meet customers’ demanding requirements on strips’ width and tolerance. We can slit the 301 full hard alloy strip as narrow as 3 mm with the most strict tolerance of +/- 0.05mm.
Conclusion
301 full hard stainless steel is a commonly-used material due to its outstanding properties. This alloy is mainly used in applications with high strength. It has higher tensile strength than other stable austenitic grades.
