Stainless Steel & the Mission for Clean Water

For decades, the goal of promoting clean, safe drinking water has inspired urban planners. Even today, millions of households lack this important commodity. Stainless steel currently serves as a powerful ally for ensuring high quality public water supplies in the United States and many other nations.

What qualities of stainless steel make it for water storage and treatment facilities? Consider some of this shiny metal’s most appealing physical properties and characteristics:

• Strength And Hardness
• Ductility
• Corrosion Resistance
• Availability
• Recycling Utility

Today, stainless steel finds widespread application within many industries due to its impressive strength and hardness. This steel alloy includes limited amounts of carbon, and at least 10.5% chromium. Comparatively lightweight and available in a variety of different grades, it proves capable in numerous challenging industrial, aviation, medical, and transportation applications.

It tolerates heat treatments and a variety of finishing operations. Manufacturers sometimes enhance its surface hardness. Today, the United States reportedly permits its use in public water supplies without restriction.

Another important property of stainless steel is its impressive ductility during metal working operations. Manufacturers enjoy the ability to fabricate a variety of different components using this metal, from plates to rolled sheets, tubes, bars, wires, and beams. For this reason, stainless steel serves as a popular component in water purification plants and storage facilities. In a tubular form, it welds well to create extended distribution networks.

Unlike iron, stainless steel won’t rust easily. It often represents an excellent alternative to the cast iron pipes utilized in many aging U.S. infrastructure projects. Stainless steel pipes display very low metal leaching levels. This enables them to function well as components of some public drinking water distribution systems.

Stainless steel’s corrosion resistant properties have enabled it to serve well in numerous medical and household applications. While specific environmental conditions impact its corrosion-resistance properties, it represents an excellent choice for transporting drinking water safely.

During recent years, the availability of various grades of stainless steels has contributed to their popularity as components in public waterworks. Centuries ago, foundries encountered challenges controlling metal quality. Today, significant advances in the construction of commercial kilns and blast furnaces permit manufacturers to form and refine iron and steel within designated temperature ranges.

Unlike some plastics, stainless steel offers the advantage of completely recyclable materials. Utilities send worn or heavily used parts to recycling facilities for transformation into new products. This practice helps reduce the burden on landfills. Recycling has made stainless steel a more attractive option for some water purification, storage, and distribution networks. Utilities eventually upgrade aging stainless steel infrastructure with new stainless steel parts, and offset costs by recycling heavily worn components.

Entities constructing waterworks, water storage facilities, and water distribution networks discover advantages in exploring the use of stainless steel. This strong, corrosion-resistant metal offers years of dependable service. Lightweight, hard, and readily available, it also yields a variety of construction benefits.