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-----416 fasteners used with silver
2000
Does anyone have any experience with hardened 416 stainless in direct, long-term contact with silver? Is there any danger of the sulfur added to this stainless causing the adjacent silver to tarnish? Is there any treatment of the 416 that would reduce the possibility of sulfur-induced tarnish? Treating the silver is not an option in this case.
I work for a flute and piccolo manufacturer, and we would like to replace the rather soft 303 SS screws used to fasten the silver mechanisms to the bodies of our wooden instruments with harder screws, less likely to be dinkered in assembly. 416 is the obvious candidate, being hardenable screw-machine stock, but the added sulfur makes me nervous. We've conducted a short-term experiment with some samples with no problem, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with long-term contact of these metals under ambient conditions?
Tim Burnett
Timothy Burnettflutes
I doubt very much that the sulfur in the 416 stainless steel, present primarily as manganese sulfide inclusions, will create corrosion problems for the silver. The sulfides will be generally stable and will not outgas or otherwise come out of the steel. Besides, type 303 stainless steel has about the same sulfur content and morphology as 416.
My concern regarding this change would be corrosion of the type 416 stainless steel fastener. 416 is not as corrosion resistant as 303 and may eventually be corroded by chloride contamination from perspiration and saliva.
Larry Hanke
Minneapolis, Minnesota
2000
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