Medical (Surgical) Grade Steel

What is Surgical Medical Grade Stainless Steel

Surgical steels, also called medical steels, are stainless steels with a content of at least 13% chromium, which, depending on the intended use, additionally contain carbon and / or nickel + molybdenum.
One differentiates: For medical instruments, the steels must be curable and ductile. These are martensitic or precipitation-hardenable steels. The other large family is the implant steels, 95% of those must not be hardenable. These are the austenitic steels, titanium or cobalt alloys. Medical steel should not contain sulfur, copper or other additives which would be good for cutting. Good metallurgy is a prerequisite. For hardenable steels, preferably melted versions.
As these steels come into contact with the human tissue they have to comply with the international instruments and implants standards (ISO and ASTM).

Surgical, medical steel is available in stock as bars / rods.

Composition of medical steel

Surgical steel, which is cured, contains at least 0.2% carbon. Chromium is added to improve the corrosion resistance of the steel, and nickel can be added to reduce brittleness. Although the steel is hypoallergenic, which means that it is unlikely to have an allergic reaction, the nickel-containing version should be avoided if an allergy cannot be certainly excluded. The most common types of surgical steels are the austenitic 316 L (non-hardenable) and martensitic 420 and 440 hardenable, stainless steels. There is a variety of different medical steels, but special to mention are: Chronifer M-15 X (431 X), Custom 455 and Custom 465.
These are modern new grades, which are also used in a wide range of applications.

L. Klein SA is a reliable supplier of several kinds of medical steel. Here you can buy surgical steel, even in small quantities, and steel with special requirements, like small diameters, round profiles in bars and coils, and any intermediate diameters and narrow tolerances. Furthermore we provide reputable shipping and superb multilingual customer support. There is a local delivery system existing for Switzerland but we also supply our high grade steels to the entire EU but as well worldwide, even in the smallest quantities.