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The right grade is decided by service conditions, not by sector name — but each industry tends to present a characteristic set of conditions, and a characteristic set of mistakes. These pages set out what actually drives selection in each, which grades are commonly specified and why, and what to tell us so a quotation is useful rather than approximate.
Oil and gas service covers a wider range of conditions than almost any other industry on this list -- from dry sweet gas at ambient temperature to wet sour crude at elevation. The grade that suits one stream can fail quickly in another, so selection here is driven by the specific fluid composition rather than by the sector name.
Commonly specified: 316 / 316L · 321 · 347H · 304 / 304L
In chemical process plant the deciding factor is almost never "stainless or not" -- it is which stainless, against a specific chemistry at a specific concentration and temperature. The same acid can be handled comfortably at one concentration and attack the same grade aggressively at another.
Commonly specified: 316L · 304L · 321 · 310S
Pharmaceutical process differs from general chemical duty in one decisive respect: the surface matters as much as the alloy. A grade that resists the process chemistry perfectly is still unsuitable if its internal finish harbours product residue or cannot be cleaned and verified.
Commonly specified: 316L · 304L
Food and dairy duty is often assumed to be undemanding because the products are not industrial chemicals. In practice the cleaning regime is frequently more aggressive than the product: caustic and acid clean-in-place cycles, repeated daily, at temperature.
Commonly specified: 304 / 304L · 316 / 316L
Water duty spans an enormous corrosivity range, and chloride concentration is the variable that matters. Potable water, treated effluent, brackish water and seawater are four different materials problems, and a grade that is comfortable in the first is not necessarily viable in the last.
Commonly specified: 316 / 316L · 304 / 304L
Power plant duty is dominated by temperature. The question is rarely whether a grade resists a chemical, but whether it retains strength and resists oxidation over tens of thousands of hours at elevated temperature -- and whether it stays structurally sound through the carbide-precipitation range rather than simply passing a test when new.
Commonly specified: 347H · 321 · 310S · 316 / 316L
Architectural work inverts the usual priority. Structural adequacy is rarely the difficult part; appearance over time is. A handrail that is structurally perfect but visibly tea-stained after eighteen months will be treated by the client as a failure, and the remedy is replacement, not repair.
Commonly specified: 304 · 316 · 202
Exhaust duty combines two attacks that do not usually occur together: high temperature and oxidation at the hot end, and acidic condensate corrosion at the cool end, with thermal cycling driving both. The section nearest the tailpipe often corrodes first, because that is where condensate collects and sits between journeys.
Commonly specified: 304 / 304L · 316 / 316L · 321
These are the sectors we are asked about most often, not the limit of what stainless pipe and tube is used for. Describe the service conditions — medium, temperature, pressure, whether it will be welded — and we will tell you which grade fits, including when the honest answer is a material outside our range.
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