Tuesday 24 February 2009

Sea water corrodes stainless steel

For those of you who didn't know, sea water makes small pit holes in stainless steel. (Also, stainess steel is not magnetic. Honest! - Look it up.) This gave me an evil idea for a fantasy...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

More correctly, there are several types of stainless steels, the two most common being:

Austenitic is very resistant to corrosion and is non-magnetic. Sea water would have little impact on it, however, it could be prone to wear, especially if rubbing against other parts.

Martenistic is magnetic, and can be hardened to make it very strong - virtually impossible to cut with a file or hacksaw. However, it can be prone to pitting and light corrosion.

An interesting story line might be to have the locking mechanism made from the softer stainless, with a key that is made from hardened material, so that every time the key is used, it wears out the lock, just a little bit. When would the lock finally be too worn to open? This time? The next time? Hmmm.

ptathuk said...

Wow, you're right! Now, there's another story in the making. Speaking of which...

What is the %s of Iron and Chrome? Is there any other addition to the alloy to give the differences? (I did a bit of Metalergy 30 years ago. Clearly I've forgotten most, if not neatly all of it. - Could be an age thing.)

Thanks Tom.