Architectural

Stainless steel is used for buildings for both practical and aesthetic reasons.

Stainless steel was in vogue during the art deco period. The most famous example of this is the upper portion of the Chrysler Building (pictured). Some diners and fast-food restaurants use large ornamental panels and stainless fixtures and furniture. Owing to the durability of the material, many of these buildings retain their original appearance.

The forging of stainless steel has given rise to a fresh approach to architectural blacksmithing in recent years.

Type 316 stainless is used on the exterior of both the Petronas Twin Towers and the Jin Mao Building, two of the world's tallest skyscrapers.^[12]

The Parliament House of Australia in Canberra has a stainless steel flagpole weighing over 220 tons.

The aeration building in the Edmonton Composting Facility, the size of 14 hockey rinks, is the largest stainless steel building in North America.

Monuments and sculptures

• The Unisphere, constructed as the theme symbol of the 1964-5 World's Fair in New York City, is the world's largest globe-shaped structure.

• The Gateway Arch (pictured) is clad entirely in stainless steel: 886 tons (804 metric tonnes) of 0.25 in (6.4 mm) plate, #3 finish, type 304 stainless steel.

• The United States Air Force Memorial has an austenitic stainless steel structural skin.

• The Atomium in Brussels, Belgium was renovated with stainless-steel cladding in a renovation completed in 2006; previously the spheres and tubes of the structure were clad in aluminium.

• The Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor, in Chicago US.

• The Sibelius monument in Helsinki, Finland, is made entirely of stainless steel tubes.

Recycling and reuse

Stainless steel is 100% recyclable. An average stainless steel object is composed of about 60% recycled material of which approximately 40% originates from end-of-life products and about 60% comes from manufacturing processes.

Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer

Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer or carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP or CRP), is a very strong and light fiber-reinforced polymer which contains carbon fibers. The polymer is most oftenepoxy, but other polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester or nylon, are sometimes used. Thecomposite may contain other fibers such as Kevlar, aluminium, glass fibers as well as carbon fiber.

Although it can be relatively expensive, it has many applications in aerospace and automotive fields, as well as in sailboats, and notably finds use in modern bicycles and motorcycles, where its high strength-to-weight ratio and good rigidity is of importance. Improved manufacturing techniques are reducing the costs and time to manufacture, making it increasingly common in small consumer goods as well, such as laptops, tripods, fishing rods, paintball equipment, archery equipment, racquet frames, stringed instrument bodies, drum shells, golf clubs, and pool/billiards/snooker cues.

Other terms are not uncommonly used to refer to the material, such as carbon fiber, graphite-reinforced polymer or graphite fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP is less common since it clashes with glass-(fiber)-reinforced polymer). In product advertisements, it is sometimes referred to simply as graphite fiber (graphite fibre), for short.