Type 440 Stainless Steel, known as “razor blade steel,” is a hardenable high-carbon chromium steel. When put under heat treatment it attains the highest hardness levels of any grade of stainless steel. Type 440 Stainless Steel, which comes in four different grades, 440A, 440B, 440C, and 440F, offers good corrosion resistance along with abrasion resistance. All grades can be easily machined in their annealed state, they also offer resistance to mild acids, alkalis, foods, fresh water, and air. Type 440 can be hardened to Rockwell 58 harness.
Type 440 Stainless Steel Applications
Thanks to each grade’s outstanding properties, all grades of Type 440 Stainless Steel can be found in a number of different products including:
- Pivot pins
- Dental and surgical instruments
- High-quality knife blades
- Valve seats
- Nozzles
- Oil pumps
- Rolling element bearings
Type 440 Stainless Steel Chemical Composition
Each grade of Type 440 Stainless Steel is made up of a unique chemical composition. It should be noted that the only major difference between the grades is the level of Carbon
Type 440A
- Cr 16-18%
- Mn 1%
- Si 1%
- Mo 0.75%
- P 0.04%
- S 0.03%
- C 0.6-0.75%
Type 440B
- C 0.75-0.95%
Type 440C and 440F
- C 0.95-1.20%
All of the Type 440 Stainless Steel offered by Continental Steel meets or exceeds some of the toughest standards including ASTM, QQ, and MIL-S.