Just as their name implies, high purity water systems have one purpose and one purpose only: produce and transport high purity water to where it is required. That means no minerals, no particulates, no bacteria, and no other organic material should be in the water stream. When an inspection of the system results in a…

Congratulations! You did your due diligence and had components passivated to increase their resistance to corrosion significantly. Now what? As miraculous as passivated stainless steel’s ability to not corrode under normal circumstances appears, passivation is not a secret potion that magically imparts a lifetime of invulnerability. What is Passivation? As a quick re-cap, stainless steel…

When President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law on January 4, 2011, the purpose was to make food growers and processors more proactive in food supply contamination prevention as opposed to continuing the reactive practices of relying on recalls. As the deadlines were phased in through the supply chain, the businesses involved in…

When one hears the words “metal” and “corrosion” used together, the most common image that comes to mind is something made of steel or iron covered in orange-red rust. And, that’s perfectly accurate and acceptable, given how commonplace the slow-motion oxidation of iron is in our world. The old metal sign, the fender on the…

While much is still unknown about the nature of the novel coronavirus, it has been discovered that the virus can survive for many hours on non-porous surfaces such as stainless steel. To be more accurate, the droplets of moisture expelled by an infected person can remain on a non-porous surface for hours or even days,…

For most people, stainless steel is that bright, shiny metal used everywhere from kitchens to operating rooms to decorative exteriors of buildings. And, if asked about the finish, most would answer something along the lines of “mirror smooth.” In reality, of course, a stainless steel item has a finish that best serves its purpose.  Beyond…

At first glance electrolytic cleaning and electropolishing look to be identical procedures. They both involve creating an electrical circuit between the stainless steel being processed and the tool being passed over it. Furthermore, both processes use the same electrolytic cleaning solution to aid in removing the contaminants. However, the two procedures not only have different…

Stainless steel’s utility is, as its name implies, largely due to its ability to remain corrosion-free where other materials would react to the substances they come in contact with. However, even with this well-known resistance, rust can still form on stainless steel surfaces. Known as “rouge” it rests on the surface of the stainless steel,…

Not long after its initial development in the first decades of the 20th century, stainless steel was soon incorporated into the food making process. Its resistance to corrosion, the ease with which it can be cleaned and sterilized with steam, and its lack of a need of a protective surface coating have all led to…

Since just before the turn of this century, the vast majority of the food and beverage industry has come under increased scrutiny designed to ensure the safety of the food stream from farm or factory to the consumer’s table. The contributing factors have included outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, concerns about bioterrorism and the desire to…