Appreciating the Eco-Friendly Properties and Qualities of Stainless Steel
The construction industry is quite proud of the fact that most of the building materials now in use, including stainless steel fittings, are eco-friendly. As a matter of fact, the special alloy is quite popular among builders and designers because its 100% recyclable. That simply means sustainability as they can now be purchased as scrap metals.
What’s even more amazing is that some of the famous shopping centres in Europe and Asia use stainless steel as components of structural and architectural designs. This type of metal is now a material of choice in constructing gates, security walls, barriers and bollards. Mainly because of its high resistance against the impact of explosions.
Still, there are certain grades of stainless steel that must be considered if looking to use them for construction purposes. Citing stainless steel fittings as example, functioning as connectors for brass tubes.
One needs to use the 301, 304 or 310 stainless steel grades, because at these levels, a brass tube and stainless steel fitting are only two metals apart. This denotes that as such, the brass and stainless steel compositions can link safely with minimal possibility of corrosion happening between the two alloys.
What Exactly is a Stainless Steel?
First off, it should be clear that stainless steel does not refer to a single alloy. It’s actually a general term used in referring to various varieties of iron or metal that combine with chromium to form chromium oxide.
Chromium oxide in particular is the substance that forms a surface-protective film that keeps the iron or metal protected against the effects of corrosion-causing natural elements. This is why stainless steel is often used for exterior building applications. The stainless steel formed by the combination of metal or iron and chromium, takes on some of the properties of the latter; steely grey colour, shiny and hard but brittle when it merges with metal. Most important of all is that chromium on its own, is a metal highly valuable and appreciated for its robustness and strong resistance against corrosion.
When a stainless steel has increased chromium composition, the corrosion capability of the steel likewise increases. Regardless of the increase in the levels of oxidizing agents in the environment, stainless steel components remain highly resistant against corrosion. Except when nitric acid occurs in increased levels of concentration. Such a condition makes chromium alloy susceptible to corrosion
Another important feature of stainless alloys is that the process of combining chromium with other metals does not produce toxic wastes.