Chronickels

Nickel news, views, commentary and insights

JUNE 06 - 2023

How food standards save lives

World Food Safety Day on 7 June 2023 draws attention to food standards. Foodborne diseases affect 1 in 10 people worldwide each year, and food standards help us to ensure what we eat is safe.

STAINLESS STEEL HEALTH FOOD SAFETY
SEPTEMBER 06 - 2022

300 series austenitic alloys – Checking all the boxes

Materials selection for any piece of equipment or a process system is rarely a simple task, unless you are exactly replicating something successful. Often engineers will have a checklist to help them narrow down the choices, eliminating groups of materials that are not suitable for various reasons. Austenitic 300 series stainless steels containing 7-35% nickel will have most if not all of the boxes checked for being suitable where a stainless steel is desired.

STAINLESS STEEL NICKEL ALLOYS TOOL STEEL NICKEL STEEL TECHNICAL HELP
JUNE 10 - 2022

300 series vs. ferritic stainless steel – Which one should I choose?

Each family of stainless steels has its strengths and weaknesses. Ferritic stainless steels have useful properties – a lower rate of thermal expansion, higher thermal conductivity, strong ferromagnetism and very high resistance to chloride stress corrosion cracking (SCC). When looking at selecting any alloys, it is important to consider all the factors for successful usage.

NICKEL ALLOYS STAINLESS STEEL NICKEL STEEL
MAY 17 - 2022

300 series vs. duplex stainless steel – Which one should I choose?

The duplex alloys are “problem-solving alloys” for good reason, they have been successfully used in many places where carbon steels and standard austenitic alloys have failed. Just like with the austenitic family, there are many different duplex alloys to choose from, with corrosion resistance varying from moderate with the lean duplex alloys to very high with the superduplex alloys.

NICKEL ALLOYS STAINLESS STEEL NICKEL STEEL
APRIL 06 - 2022

300 vs 200 series stainless steels - Which alternative suits?

The selection of an alloy should be guided by careful examination of the needs of the application. Before making a switch, it’s important to fully investigate an alloy’s strengths, weaknesses and applicability to your structure.

NICKEL ALLOYS NICKEL STEEL STAINLESS STEEL
JANUARY 27 - 2022

Mining electronics waste

Think of the largest cruise ship. Then imagine how much it weighs – just over 100,000 tonnes, in fact. Now think about 500 of those ships, and what they weigh. That is the staggering amount of new electronic waste that we generate every year.

SUSTAINABILITY BATTERIES RESOURCES AND RESERVES RECYCLING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT RAW MATERIALS
NOVEMBER 16 - 2021

Stainless steel: a lifetime of savings

While it may require an initial higher investment when compared with other materials, stainless steel’s unique properties deliver long-term performance and economic benefits including minimum downtime, reduced maintenance costs and reduced environmental impacts.

LIFE CYCLE COSTING STAINLESS STEEL ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION SUSTAINABILITY RECYCLING
SEPTEMBER 23 - 2021

Wind and water - Nickel in clean energy

Even small quantities of nickel in an application can make a big difference to successful deployment.

NICKEL ALLOYS STAINLESS STEEL WATER SUSTAINABILITY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS BATTERIES RENEWABLE ENERGY
AUGUST 03 - 2021

Hot rocks - Geothermal and the role of nickel

Geothermal energy for electric power production has a low profile yet is significant in the current and potential energy mix for a number of countries. It has also been described as the most reliable of the renewable energy sources, above weather-dependent wind, solar and hydropower.

NICKEL ALLOYS STAINLESS STEEL RENEWABLE ENERGY NICKEL MAGAZINE
MAY 10 - 2021

Producing green hydrogen

The many new and innovative applications of hydrogen as fuel show great promise for a greener future.

NICKEL MAGAZINE SUSTAINABILITY BATTERIES ELECTRIC VEHICLES RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
MARCH 05 - 2021

Electric vehicle safety : concerns and considerations

As electric vehicles (EVs) trend from being niche to mass scale and the lines between EVs and their combustion engine (ICE) counterparts get blurred in terms of usability, consumers, automakers, governments and fire departments continue to have some apprehensions.

BATTERIES ELECTRIC VEHICLES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
JUNE 10 - 2020

Battle of the batteries - Cost versus Performance

The last three months have been unprecedented. But amidst the chaos and despite the drop in global GDP, there has still been a considerable amount of activity in the electric vehicle (EV) and battery world.

CHINA ELECTRIC VEHICLES BATTERIES
MAY 06 - 2020

Food safety: why stainless steel is a vital ingredient

Food safety starts with rigorous hygiene, and nickel-containing stainless steels are the superior, reliable standard at every link of the food chain.

STAINLESS STEEL SUSTAINABILITY SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS FOOD SAFETY HEALTH
FEBRUARY 21 - 2020

Competitive technologies to high nickel Li-ion batteries – The pros and cons

The electric vehicle market is expected to be by far the largest and most dominant market for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Despite the strong desire to increase EV sales by all involved in the value chain, proliferation has been curbed due to the high cost to the consumer and the perceived disadvantages of owning an EV. Range anxiety, a lack of charging stations and fire safety worries, are among the top concerns.

BATTERIES ELECTRIC VEHICLES