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Stainless steel grading device

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
April 15, 2008

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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 [on eBay or Amazon] X-ray fluorescence machine.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April , 2008

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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
April 24, 2008

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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
June 11, 2008