20.

CORROSION
20.4

NOTES

POST FABRICATION CLEANING

Most of the commonly encountered corrosion problems, in environments
where that grade of stainless steel normally performs well, can be traced
to incomplete or inadequate cleaning of the surface following fabrication.
For best performance, it is essential to prevent or remove all fabrication
related defects, such as arc strikes, weld spatter, scratches, gouges, heat tint
scale, and embedded iron from all wetted surfaces after fabrication.The
heavy cleaning required after fabrication may be done by blasting with
various abrasives, by power brushing with aluminum oxide discs or
flapper wheels, by pickling or by electropolishing.
Pickling is covered in ASTM A380, Standard Practice for Cleaning,
Descaling and Passivation of Stainless Steel Parts, Equipment and
SystemsTable A2.1 Part 1.

Figure 20-1 Effect of Carbon on Carbide Precipitation

F

C
900

1600

0.080
0.062

800

0.052

1400

700

1200

0.042
0.030

600

0.019%
Carbon

1000

500
800
10 sec. 1 min.

10 min.

1 hr.

10 hrs.

100 hrs.

1000 hrs.

10,000 hrs

Time-Temperature-Sensitization Curves
Time required for formation of carbide precipitation in stainless steels with various carbon contents.
Carbide precipitation forms in the areas to the right of the various carbon-content curves. Within
time-periods applicable to welding, chromium-nickel stainless steels with 0.05% carbon would be
quite free from grain boundary precipitation.

Stainless Steels and Specialty Alloys for Pulp and Paper

136