What Would Cause Stainless Steel to Rust?

Generally speaking, stainless steel sculptures could not rust. But in some special cases, stainless steel would also rust. So, what causes the rust of stainless steel?

The Principle of Rust Prevention of Stainless Steel:

Stainless steel has the ability to resist atmospheric oxidation—stainlessness, and it also has the ability to corrode in media containing acid, alkali, and salt—corrosion resistance. The reason for these characteristics is that a very thin, strong, dense, and stable chromium-rich oxide film (protective film) formed on its surface could prevent the oxygen atoms from continuing to penetrate and continue to oxidize. That’s the reason stainless steel gains the ability to resist rust.

Why Does It Rust?

However, its anti-corrosion ability is affected by the chemical composition of the steel itself, the conditions of use, and the types of environmental media, which may change or even be destroyed. Once this film is continuously destroyed for some reason, oxygen atoms in the air or liquid would continue to infiltrate or iron atoms in the metal would continue to separate out, forming loose iron oxide, and the stainless steel surface would continue to be rusted.

Such as 304 stainless steel, in a dry and clean atmosphere, it has absolutely excellent anti-corrosion ability, but when it is moved to the seaside area, it would quickly rust in the sea fog containing a lot of salt; while the 316 steel pipe performs Good, very suitable for survival in some coastal cities. Therefore, we generally recommend that our customers near the seashore choose 316 as the raw material for stainless steel sculptures.

Why Is the Surface Film of Stainless Steel Destroyed?

There are many forms of damage to the surface film of stainless steel, and the following are more common in daily life:

1. The surface of stainless steel has accumulated dust containing other metal elements or attachments of foreign metal particles. In humid air, the condensation between the attachments and stainless steel connects the two into a micro battery, which initiates an electrochemical reaction. The protective film is damaged, which is called electrochemical corrosion.

2. The surface of stainless steel adheres to the organic juice (such as melon, vegetable, noodle soup, sputum, etc.), which forms organic acid in the presence of water and oxygen, and the organic acid would corrode the metal surface for a long time.

3. The surface of stainless steel adheres to containing acid, alkali, and salt substances (such as alkaline water and lime water splashing on the decoration wall), causing local corrosion.

4. In polluted air (such as the atmosphere containing a large amount of sulfide, carbon oxide, and nitrogen oxide), it would form sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and acetic acid liquid spots when encountering condensed water, causing chemical corrosion.

How to Prevent Rust?

The above conditions could cause damage to the protective film on the stainless steel surface and cause rust. Therefore, to ensure that the surface of your stainless steel sculpture is permanently bright and not corroded, we recommend:

1. The surface of stainless steel sculptures must be cleaned and scrubbed frequently to remove attachments and eliminate external factors that cause modification.

2.316 stainless steel should be used in coastal areas, which could resist seawater corrosion.

3. Stainless steel that does not meet the requirements of 304 material is easy to causes rust, so we recommend our customers to carefully choose 304 or 316 stainless steel when choosing materials.

As a professional sculpture manufacturing factory, we use stainless steel that meets the requirements of 304. At the same time, we would also recommend the most suitable stainless steel for customers according to their needs and the environmental location of the sculpture. Therefore, if you need to buy stainless steel sculptures, you could contact YouFine at any time.