Why Passivation Improves the Quality of Metal
High Performance Metal Finishing is a one stop shop for your metal finisher requirements, including passivation and passivity testing. We believe in the importance of every step in the metal finisher process because missing a step can result in a lower quality product. Passivation is used to prevent the corrosion of stainless steel because even though it is naturally corrosion resistant, it is not impervious to rust. This step improves the quality of the metal by strengthening it and preserving its appearance.
Passivation & Passivity Testing
Passivation of stainless steel is a non-electric process that removes free iron from the surface of the steel part using a chemical solution. High Performance Metal Finishing has a strict protocol we follow when it comes to our quality control. We use the ASTM A380-99 Standard for pre-treatment prior to our passivation. Our pre-clean includes removing all impurities to insure a good passivation of the surface material. We then dip the part into a chemical solution bath that dissolves the free iron from the surface. Upon its exposure to air, it forms a chromic layer, and typically takes 8 to 24 hours for it to oxidize. Following the passivation, we do a passivity test to check for quality. This is an important step because it ensures your stainless steel went through the process correctly.
Passivation provides steel with a range of benefits including improved aesthetics, extended life, less maintenance, saves money, reduces down-time, smooths out grain boundaries, and cleans the surface to improve overall quality. Some industries that that we do passivation for are food processes, medical, pharmaceutical, dairy, beverage, aerospace, military, and bulk food processing.
Additional Metal Finishing
High Performance Metal Finishing offers an array of metal finishing processes in addition to our passivation. We also offer our customers electropolishing, media blasting, powder coating, pickling, aluminum cleaning, degreasing, and wet coat painting. Our stainless steel electropolishing removes metal from the surface so that it is free from occlusions and stress, which leaves it highly reflective and smooth. Our media blasting is available with a variety of blast beads to smooth rough surfaces for post processes such as powder coating and wet coat painting. Pickling is also a process that will smooth metal surfaces to prepare them for a longer paint life. We also provide degreasing as a pre-treatment and aluminum cleaning.
At High Performance Metal Finishing, we provide only the best for our customers. With our proprietary passivation process and additional metal finishing services, we promise to be your one stop shop for all your metal finishing projects. Contact us today using our webform or call us at (269) 327-8897.