48498

Stainless steel grading device [Texas] 

April 15, 2008

Is there a hand held tool or device that can tell you what grade of stainless that is being tested? Specifically we would like to be able to test the grade of stainless being supplied on our equipment.

Joe Dupree
industrial service tech - Houston, Texas, USA

Hi, Joe. Please search the site with terms like "scrap sorter", "spot test", "spark test" because there are dozens of threads on the subject -- it's all a matter of how much you are willing to spend. For $35,000 or so you can have a hand-held "scrap sorter" X-ray fluorescence machine.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, NJ

The easiest way to tell 200,300 from 400 series is with a magnet. If the magnet stick to the stainless, then it's 400 series, otherwise it's either 200 or 300 series.

Another option, is perhaps send it to lab for testing.
$35K is a lot of money if you don't need to test it frequently.

Michael Liu Taylor    specialty stainless steel distributor Dallas, Texas

Hello,

TWO METHODS:

1) Elemental analysis cost around 400 dollars *The best one).

2) Microstructure analysis costs around 80 dollars

Jose Castellanos
- Minneapolis, MN, USA