Pickling And Passivation
Stainless steel can corrode in service if there is contamination of the surface. Pickling and passivation are two forms of chemical metal finishing that provide protective properties to the metal especially against rust. In other words, pickling and passivation are the names of the two processes where the metal is submerged in a bathing liquid that removes imperfections and rust from the surface of metal.
Both pickling and passivation metal finishing offer great advantages for metal products.
- Removes impurities that are left from the metal being manufactured
- Protects the metal from pollutants getting into the metal causing rusting and damage in the future
- Leaves the surface of the metals smooth and with no imperfections
- Increases the durability of the metals
Though there doesn’t seem to be much difference between the two processes, it comes down to the intensity of the individual treatments.
- Pickling uses acids that take off the surface of the surface of the metal to treat impurities at a sublevel basis.
- Pickling leaves a greater change to the metal.
- Passivation uses either nitric or citric acid; neither is recognized as being as aggressive as the acids used in pickling.
- Passivation does not typically go below the surface of the metal and does not change the properties of the metal. The oxide layer left by passivation is only .0000001 inch thick. To put that into persective it is 1/100,000 as thick as a human hair.
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