Stainless Steel is a large and widely used family of Iron-Chromium Alloys. Stainless Steels are alloys of iron and carbon that contain between 12 and 30 percent Chromium, plus other alloying elements. The chromium, which helps develop a passive surface oxide film, provides corrosion resistance in stainless steels. Stainless Steels are wrought or cast and consist of several families that are named for their metallurgical structure. Stainless Steels are fabricated and welded by all common processes and are used for their corrosion resistance, high-temperature strength, scaling resistance, and low-temperature toughness. These properties account for their extremely wide use in practically every industry. Density is .29 lbs./in3 for 300 series. Most stainless steel products in this catalog are of type 300 series. Formability is unusually good, and cold working results in increased strength. These alloys are non-magnetic in the annealed condition, although some may become slightly magnetic after cold working. They can be hardened only by cold working, and not by heat treatment. Stainless Steel 18-8 denotes 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel. Welding characteristics are very good. Widely used in marine environments and in applications which require exposure to acetic acid compounds, and other chemical corrosives. Multiple wire strands, cables and wire ropes are actually machines. Each component wire and strand physically adjusts to contribute to the cable or wire ropes load bearing capacity. Generally the more wires in a strand, cable or wire rope the more flexible it behaves. A typical Loos and Co. product is 7x19 cable. In this cable there are seven strands of nineteen wires each, (7x19=133). There are 133 wires working together as a machine in this particular construction. Each application has a construction best suited for it.