Summer 1990
Electropolishing of Stainless Steel: Meeting the Materials Requirements for Today’s Demanding Applications
Electropolished stainless steel materials are finding increasing
use in high purity gas lines, medical devices, and food processing
and packaging applications. Towards this end, both producers
and end users arc developing various chemical and mechanical
processes to produce “passivity” surfaces which are chemically
inert and corrosion resistant. Although stainless steel produces a
natural oxide in air that is chromium rich, the thickness is nol
controlled and surface roughness often causes the oxide layer to
be both non-uniform and sometimes patchy. Electropolishing is
the most common treatment of stainless steel to produce a
continuous, uniform layer of chromium rich oxide layer.
