304 stainless steel has excellent performance in various atmospheric environments and many corrosive media. Sustains pitting and crevice corrosion in warm chloride environments and stress corrosion cracking above approximately 60°C. Grade 304 is considered resistant to up to 200 mg/L chloride at ambient temperatures, reducing to 150 mg/L chloride at 60°C. Grade 304 is standard "18/8" stainless steel.

       It is currently a stainless steel with a wide range of uses and high cost performance. Even if there are many substitutes, its widespread use will not be affected. And has excellent forming and welding characteristics. The balanced austenitic structure of grade 304 enables deep drawing without intermediate annealing. This means that this grade of steel dominates the manufacture of drawn stainless steel parts such as sinks, hollowware and pans. For these applications, special 304 DDQ or Deep Drawing Quality variants are often used.

       Grade 304 stainless steel can be easily braked or rolled into a variety of components for use in industry, construction and transportation. It also has excellent welding properties. When welding thin sections, post-weld annealing is not required. 304L is a low-carbon version of 304 and does not require post-weld annealing, so it is widely used for heavy parts above about 6mm. 304H has a higher carbon content grade and is used at high temperatures. The austenitic structure also gives these steel grades excellent toughness, even at low temperatures.

       These properties are specified for flat coil products such as stainless steel furniture, sheets, sheets and coils in ASTM A240/A240M. For other products, such as tubes and rods, similar, but not necessarily identical, properties are specified in their respective specifications. Grade 304 has good oxidation resistance in intermittent operation to 870°C and continuous operation to 925°C. If subsequent water corrosion resistance is important, it is not recommended to use 304 stainless steel continuously in the range of 425-860°C.