01-03-2024, 01:48 PM
I work for a company that builds heavy process control equipment for refineries and power plants. We build most of it our of stainless steel. For case heads where the thickness is significant relative to OA size is a reasonable thing to do. But when you go to thinner material, a lot of strange ( unpleasant ? ) things happen. Stainless has very poor heat transfer capabilities so it will warp and twist badly. I could envision cases becoming so stuck that serious machine work becomes required to remove the case. Stainless is also very brittle so upon firing, the necks may split before they seal the throat of a chamber. Probably not a good idea to make the entire case from stainless.