Steel passivation creates a chemical environment for facilitating the permanent formation of chromium oxide on treated steel. For the thin film of chromium oxide to form and adhere to the steel, nitric acid treatment is the most effective option, although citric and phosphoric acid may also be used at times. As to why companies should only buy passivated steel products, here are five reasons to explain why it is so important.
Steel Passivation Can be a Legal Mandate
It is mandatory to use passivated steel when it comes to most products used in certain key sectors such as transportation, construction, food processing, sanitation, and automotive. Several different standards in steel passivation specify the exact requirements that the passivated steel products must meet in respect of their intended uses. Whether you are manufacturing, assembling, retailing, or using steel in your business, all your products must comply with their applicable standards of steel passivation.
Steel Passivation is Essential for Corrosion Resistance
The phrase steel passivation is a chemical term that describes any act of making steel passive (nonreactive) to oxidization. Note that passivation is used to strengthen other metals such as aluminum against corrosion as well, but steel delivers the best result by far; here’s how stainless steel passivation prevents corrosion.
Passivated Steel is Highly Resistant to Contamination
Stainless steel is naturally resistant to contaminants, compared to regular carbon steel, but it can still get contaminated with sulfides, iron particles, and other contaminants. These are called contaminants because they decrease stainless steel’s natural resistance to corrosion by getting embedded into the products while they are being cut, shaped, bent, folded, chemically reinforced, or processed in some other way. Post passivation, stainless steel products not only lose all the contaminants that they may have gathered previously, but they also become highly resistant to future contaminations as well.
Passivated Steel Lasts Significantly Longer
Stainless steel lasts longer than any other form of steel because it’s stronger than most and has a higher corrosion resistance than any other steel alloy. However, passivated steel builds on the already impressive lifetime of stainless steel by covering it in a chromium layer.
Consequently, any product or structure that’s built with passivated steel will inevitably last for a long time. This is the reason why steel passivation has become mandatory in sectors such as construction where the reliability of steel is a necessity for a structure to remain safe for decades.
Passivated Steel is the More Hygienic Option
Passivated steel is the more hygienic option because the same chromium layer that makes the steel highly resistant to corrosion also makes it almost impossible for pathogenic and parasitic lifeforms to use it as a survivable surface. Now, cleaning and disinfecting will still be necessary, but passivated steel is easier to clean and disinfect than any other commonly used materials in the manufacturing of sanitation, food processing, and healthcare equipment.
Some versions of passivated steel are antibacterial by design. It would be fair to conclude that passivated steel is a superior version of stainless steel in every possible way.
