Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corp. (NSSC) has developed the world’s first tin added low interstitial ferritic steel grades, named the “FW (forward) series”. This was achieved by making use of NSSC’s own seed technology that can drastically improve the corrosion resistance of ferritic stainless steel by adding a micro amount of tin. The FW series steel exhibits not only improved corrosion resistance but also increased workability. NSSC also announced that from July it has begun marketing distributing the first FW series steel, “NSSC(R) FW1”, a highly corrosion resistant, low chrome, and low interstitial ferritic stainless steel, which consists of 14% chrome but which has a corrosion resistance level equivalent to 18% chrome stainless steel grades. NSSC FW1 has the highest level workability among ferritic steel sheets, thus it can be adopted to a wide range of applications, including those in which existing 18% Cr grades are often used. Since NSSC FW1 is an ultra fine grained steel with low alloy elements, it conserves alloy resources and is stable in cost by minimizing the effect of fluctuations of raw material prices. In December 2010, NSSC plans to make the further announcement of a new product with even higher corrosion resistance, the “NSSC(R) FW2”, a new type of steel grade from the same series as NSSC(R) FW1, which also utilizes a micro amount of tin.
