Pans

[newshound]

I have some (relatively cheap) stainless steel saucepans that have a separate "skin" in contact with the hob that is attached to the base of the main deep pressed stainless steel body by what appears to be some sort of crude alloy "braze". It does not look to be copper based. One of these skins has come off. Does anyone have ideas as to what the now exposed material might contain? Because of Covid I don't have access to my normal pool of tame (and very smart) metallurgists with their EDAX-SEM as a last resort.

[polygonum_on_google]

If I have understood your description properly, it is very likely to be an aluminium alloy. Possibly with another layer sandwiching it.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

This sounds like an awfully complex design for a pan to me, why would anyone go to all that trouble in the first place? Brian

[michael adams]

It allows them to use thinner gauge steel basically. All pans are shaped/drawn from single blanks and to have a heatproof base would mean having to use thicker gauge steel for the whole pan which would also make them considerably heavier. Instead a heatproof base is added.

michael adams

heatproof - not subject to distortion or heat damage

[polygonum_on_google]

Some pan makers claim that the aluminium layer helps to ensure even heating and good heat transmission.

The other direction to look at this is the stainless steel protects the soft and corrosion-prone aluminium (alloy) from the food being cooked.

There are also a few pans, all of which are expensive, which use a layer of copper.

[michael adams]

Which is all bollocks apparently.

Its to aid heat conductivity.

michael adams

...

[Roger Hayter]

The two purposes are not mutually exclusive. It isn't aiding heat conductivity vertically, putting in a new layer, even highly conductive, is not going to reduce thermal resistance vertically. It is aiding heat conduction laterally. Partly to deliver more heat to the inside of the pan but equally to even out the temperature across the base and reduce the "doming" that thin saucepans rapidly develop due to non-uniform expansion.

[The Natural Philosopher]

As usual adams is completely wrong.

Its all about non-gas hobs - induction or radiant or plain hotplates.

Aluminium is, bar expensive copper, the best material to put in contact for heat conduction out of a flat plate.

But it's easily damaged, so a billet is encased in stainless steel.

Pans of course are not drawn, they are spun.

[The Natural Philosopher]

which reduces vertical hear conduction as the pan is no longer in contact with the flat heating element...

[Tim Lamb]

Changing from gas to induction, roughly half my wife's favourite pans got ditched!

>

[Radio Man]

Pans often have layers of metal to either spread the heat or make them induction compatible.

Some stainless steal is induction compatible.

[polygonum_on_google]

What about silver?

Yes - there are solid silver pans.

[tabbypurr]

too many idiotic claims on that page.

[Jen]

when I upgraded from gas to induction, I was under the impression that all cookware sets that aren’t labelled as ‘induction-ready’ are naturally incompatible with induction cooktops. However, some stainless steel and cast iron pans turned out to be just fine for my induction cooktop that I found in this post -

It’s just that cast iron pans might scratch the smooth top if not used carefully. Further , there are clever ways like using converter disks to use completely non-induction cookware on induction cooktops.