De Buyer selects the highest European stainless steels strictly stamped AISI 304 and AISI 430, the best food grade stainless steels: robust, hygienic, guaranty without any heavy metal residues. They combine their very different properties to manufacture high performing collections.
AISI 304 (called 18/10 too) is highly corrosion resistant thanks to its 8.3-10% proportion of Nickel. It is used in all de Buyer's collections to shape the pan. But the AISI 304 has a poor thermal conductivity and cannot work on induction. De Buyer compensates this weakness by adding an external bottom made of AISI 430 (called 18/0) on its Milady & Prim'Appety collections. AISI 430, ferritic, is magnetic (works on induction) and has a far better thermal conductivity. De Buyer will even add 4 additional external layers of ultra thermal conductivity materials to its acclaimed Affinity & French multilayer collections with results close to copper pans in terms of heat sensitivity and homogenous diffusion .