Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Chemistry project

I am doing a report on pickling steel for my chemistry class, and I have been looking on the web and I cannot find any information on actually how to do it. So my question is, how do you pickle steel, and why do we pickle it? And, what are the occurring reactions that are so important to the steel?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Erin Lynn
- Jamestown, North Carolina
 

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Your next step should be to get a book about 'steel making' from the library, Erin--not that my son does that for his chemistry assignments either :-)
But both chemistry teachers should be flunked if they pass students who don't understand the basics of research and authoritative references. If you don't read about a subject, and from that acquire some limited depth of understanding, you are only wasting your time. It would be pointless for me to spend twenty minutes carefully explaining something that you would simply cut & paste and thus have no chance of remembering ten days from now.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
 

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Pickling is the process of dipping metal into a solution of hydrochloric acid (HCl) to clean it. There is a good article entitled "Pickling and Acid Dipping" written by Stephen Rudy in the 2002 Metal Finishing Guidebook.

Tim Neveau
Rochester Hills, Michigan