There are hundreds of different grades of stainless steel on the market. Each of these unique formulations of stainless steel offer some degree of corrosion resistance above and beyond that of plain steel.

The existence of these stainless steel variants can cause some confusion—especially when the names & formulations of two stainless steel alloys are almost the same. This is the case with grade 304 and 304L stainless steel.

Here’s a quick table comparing stainless steel material properties for these two 300 series metals:

Why Would You Want to Use 304L, Then?

If 304L is weaker than standard 304 stainless steel, why would anyone want to use it?

The answer is that the 304L alloy’s lower carbon content helps minimize/eliminate carbide precipitation during the welding process. This allows 304L stainless steel to be used in the “as-welded” state, even in severely corrosive environments.

If you were to use standard 304 stainless in the same way, it would degrade much faster at the weld joints.

Basically, using 304L eliminates the need to anneal weld joints prior to using the completed metal form—saving time and effort.

In practice, both 304 and 304L can be used for many of the same applications. The differences are often minor enough that one isn’t considered massively more useful over the other. When stronger corrosion resistance is needed, other alloys, such as grade 316 stainless steel, are usually considered as an alternative.

About Us

JUYE metal was established in 2017 and is located in Ningbo City，which is one of the China’s largest international port cities, with convenient transportation facilities and mature commercial service network for steel products.

We are a fast-growing company, nearly all the staffs have over 10 years of professional experience in stainless steel industry. We specialize in the manufacturing, processing, distributing, warehousing and logistics of stainless steel products. We cover all aspects of the services, from the source of the stainless steel industry chain to the final products recycling and reuse.

We are the main partner of big mills in China and abroad, such as Tsingshan, Baosteel, Tisco, Jisco, Yongjin, Hongwang, Yusco, etc...With our years of rich experience and knowledge accumulation in the field of stainless steel, as well as professional processing capabilities and a strong distribution platform, our products are exported to all over the world, and we have cultivated a good user base, which in turn has grown our team.

Our own warehouse in Ningbo bonded area stores 5,000~8,000 tons of coils per month, mainly serving overseas customers for processing. We carry out a series of further processing such as cutting, slitting, trimming, polishing, and punching in our own factory.

We are implementing a strict quality control system to ensure that all products meet quality requirements of customers. We have attained many certificates such as ISO 9001,CE,PED,SGS ,etc.. All the products will be strictly inspected before shipment.

Thanks to the support and trust of our partners, our sales volume continues to increase and our business territory continues to expand.