PRODUCT NEWS Before After


then it is important to finish to a much higher standard. Our minimum recommendation in this environment would be an 800 grit finish, but we would strongly recommend that a commercial mirror polish finish is achieved if you want the finish to last without regular remedial work being required.


Before After


How Do I Safely Remove Rust from Stainless Steel? There are two options for removing the rust or ‘tea staining’ from stainless steel. 1. Mechanical. With the appropriate abrasive media and blend the finish back to the parent metal as close as it is possible to do or refinish the complete structure.


2. Chemical. With a phosphoric / citric acid-based cleaner such as the Cibo Inoxiclean Restore products.


It is often too difficult to mechanically


found in road salt and sea water. For this reason, 316 is the alloy recommended for exterior street furniture and for use in marine environments. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the cost difference, 316 stainless is not always specified. 304 stainless may be cheaper to buy


but in the long term it will corrode much more quickly and will definitely not survive without rusting in high pollution or high salt environments.


How Do You Reduce The Risk of Stainless Rusting? Given the assumption that all stainless steel is passivated before it is left in a harsh environment then the most important thing you can do to prevent rusting is to finish the stainless as well as you are able. In simple terms, the coarser the abrasive grit finish


the easier it is for a contaminant to stay in contact with the metal. In practice it is important to


understand the original finish on the parent metal before doing any further sanding or polishing processes. For example, if the supplied tube stock has been sanded only to an 80 grit finish and then a 240 grit abrasive is applied directly on top then the finish may look nice but the underlying scratches will still be much deeper than recommended. As a minimum, we would always


recommend finishing to at least a deburred 320 grit finish but the finer your customer will specify the lower the risk of rust developing. A very fine conditioning belt will achieve this finish. Particularly if the stainless will be regularly exposed to salt spray


refinish the metal in-situ. Either for reasons of access or because of the sheer scale of the job. More importantly abrading the metal will mean that for a short time the stainless steel will not be passivated leaving it open to easy attack from the local pollutants. Thankfully, the new chemical solutions are simple easy to apply and they do not change the original finish of the parent metal. Chemicals such as the Cibo Inoxiclean


Restore are sprayed directly onto the metal and spread over the surface with a non-abrasive pad. If the chemical is given a few minutes to eat away the rust then it can simply be wiped away with a damp cloth. Just as importantly products such as the Restore are 100% biodegradable and have been approved safe for food use so they can be used in a food manufacturing environment.


Written by Barry Crompton. Barry has been in the abrasives industry for 35 years and is the founder and a director at Abrasive Finishing Systems Ltd. The UK and Ireland home for Cibo Abrasive products.


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