To avoid cheating while procuring raw materials, is there any test to check the original material - SS304 and SS316?
It depends on what you define "small experiment".... XRF could be a solution.
The electrical resistance of 304 and 316 differs - you can measure that. (if you have a uniform section of each to test
304 rusts a little when exposed to sea water and 316 does not.
304 appears a little duller than 316... depending on surface finsish and environmental exposure - not a great way of telling, but go to the SS supplier and ask to see samples of both.
Have fun !
Austenitic stability of SS304 is lower than of SS316. From my experience in the deformed state a strong magnet sticks to SS304 but not to SS316.
...industry often uses optical vacuum emmission spectrometers for checking the chemical composition of incoming material.
I agrre with Michael Schymura. Austenite in SS316 is too stable to be transformed into martensite mechanical ly. On thr other hand SS304 easily transformed. Austenite is paramagnetic, martensite is ferromagnetic. Consequently, among these two steel grades, only SS304 sticks to a magnet after deformation.
Whether electrolysis is a solution for this ? I am not sure - I just heard that molybdenum will come out and it can be identified with its color during electrolysis - through which we can identify SS316
Molybdenum test kits are commonly used for separating AISI 316 -type alloys from other austenitic grades. Obviously, one should first check that the material is indeed paramagnetic (=austenitic). And after that one can test if the material contains Mo using the test kit.
Molybdenum test kits are available from many suppliers, here is one example:
http://www.koslow.com/metal_test_kits/1542c.html
Acid etching will be a good (and cheap) discriminant, thanks to the gap in corrosion resistance between the two.
But it only works if the two metals underwent to the same heat treatments!
A simple test is molybdenum content onlt because SS316 have 2to 3 % Mo where as SS304 does not have Mo.
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