Technical Reference
SS 430 Induction Base Plate
Material Specification & Grade Comparison
Fifty years of stamping SS 430 has taught us exactly why it works. Every induction base plate we manufacture uses this ferritic stainless steel — the only grade that combines the magnetic permeability required for induction heating with the formability needed for precision deep-draw stamping. This page covers the full specification, the standards it's cross-referenced against, and exactly why it beats SS 304 for this application.
Why Induction Compatibility Requires Ferritic Stainless Steel
Induction hobs don't heat by conduction from a hot element — they generate an alternating magnetic field that induces eddy currents directly inside a ferromagnetic material placed on the cooking surface. That material has to have a crystal structure that responds to a magnetic field.
SS 430 is a ferritic stainless steel — its body-centred cubic crystal structure is magnetic, so it heats efficiently on induction. SS 304, by contrast, is austenitic — a face-centred cubic structure that is paramagnetic at best and will not reliably heat on an induction hob. This is the single reason SS 430, not SS 304, became the global standard for induction base plates, regardless of the fact that SS 304 has higher general corrosion resistance.
In finished cookware, the SS 430 plate is bonded or clad to an aluminium (or aluminium-clad) body. The aluminium is what actually distributes heat quickly and evenly across the pan; the SS 430 plate's only job is to give the induction hob something ferromagnetic to induce current into.
