The corrosion resistance of kolsterised austenitic stainless steel has been tested and general corrosion rates have been determined in different environments. Special attention was given to the 'weak point' of austenitic stainless steel, i.e. the susceptibility to forms of localised corrosion like pitting and stress corrosion cracking. For the retention of corrosion resistance no deformation martensite and delta ferrite should be present in base material.

The susciptibility to stress corrosion decreased with an increasing case thickness. At a thickness of 60µm the material was virtually insensitive to the stress corrosion phenomenon.