Surface finish and maintenance

Introduction

All our steel products are made of high-quality grade 304 Stainless Steel. Correct maintenance is important, however will be dependent on type of surface treatment the product has gone through during production. Our products are either polished, electropolished or is using our PureBlast™ surface finish. As illustrated below, a product that uses electropolishing or PureBlast™ will not require any passivation as opposed to the polished once.

Stainless Steel gets it natural corrosion resistance when Chromium in the steel reacts with oxygen. The result of this reaction is an oxide layer on the surface that protects the steel from corrosion. This process happens slowly when Chromium reacts with oxygen in the air.

It is possible to force this process in 15-30 minutes by passivating the steel. Read more about passivating steel in the section further down.

Electropolishing

More and more of our smaller products have gone through electropolishing as part of the final processing at our manufacturers. Electropolishing is an electro-chemical process that happens when the product is submersed in an acid bath. Electrical wires are connected to the steel part and becomes an anode. Electrical current flows from the product (anode) through the electrolyte (acid bath) and to the cathode. The process takes between 2 and 20 minutes and removes contaminants and opens micro-pores not visible to the naked eye. The electropolishing removes a very small amount of the steel material (20-40 μm). As a result of the electropolishing process the product gets easier to clean, risk of hidden contaminants is reduced, and passivation is not necessary.

Did you know that electropolished steel is considered 30 times better corrosion resistance compared to passivated steel?

How to passivate?

Use Citric Acid or StarSan (phosphoric acid).

We recommend passivating the steel before first-time use and 1-2 times a year. Use StarSan or similar acid-based chemicals. Fill the tank with lukewarm water. Use approximately 5ml StarSan per liter and leave it for 15-20 minutes.