Hi Charlie - for a steel alloy to be called "stainless" it must contain at least 12% Cr. Most stainless steel alloys have designations as 2XX, 3XX, 4XX which refers to the type of stainless it is: ferritic, austenitic, martensitic. Your 303 alloy is an austenitic stainless steel that is commonly used for threaded applications. Each of the stainless steel types have characteristics properties you need to match to your application. The "18-10" stainless alloy could either be a generic description (18%Cr, 10% some other element) or could be an 18% Cr - 10% Ni stainless steel alloy. It is pretty hard to determine which alloy would work best without know a number of other variables. Ask you vendor to get you the data sheets on each to help with the decision. Good Luck. Dave Hillman Rockwell Collins [log in to unmask] Charlie Barker <charlie.barker@S UNTRONICINC.COM> To Sent by: TechNet [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> cc Subject 08/25/2006 10:59 [TN] 303 SS vs. 18-10 SS AM Please respond to TechNet E-Mail Forum <[log in to unmask]> ; Please respond to Charlie Barker <charlie.barker@S UNTRONICINC.COM> Howdy; Now that all have whetted their thirst for watery subjects, maybe one of you wizards can help me on this: What is the difference in the characteristics or quality, etc. of 18-10 stainless vs. 303 stainless? We need some ¼-16 threaded 303 stainless PDQ. A local supplier can get us some 18-10. Is it better? This is used as a lead screw in an small industrial machine. TIA Charlie B. --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------