PICKLING PASSIVATION

Passivation

Our passivation processes remove iron and other surface contaminants from stainless steel surfaces. Apart from forming a corrosion resistant layer over the substrate, these chemical cleaning processes also remove material contamination that may occur in machining operations. We restore the component to its original mill condition.

There are some restrictions to the types of materials being passivated. Stainless steel substrates with low levels of chromium and nickel increase the risk of flask attack, weaken the base material, as well as damage the part during passivation. Similarly, welded or brazed parts are not suited for passivation, as passivation cannot remove scale and discoloration that occurs on the “heat affected zones.” In such cases, Keith Industries can provide the best alternative treatment.

Corrosion resistance of some specific materials can be enhanced with our proprietary light electropolishing method too. Our passivation processes comply with any industry or company-specific chemical passivation standards, including ASTM specifications.

Pickling

Keith Industries has some of the largest pickling tanks in the industry to perform superior cleaning operations on huge welded structures. Our pickling operations involve softening the scale of acids before complete removal. Heavy contaminates or oxides formed by heat-treating and other high temperature operations are removed completely through pickling.

All our chemical passivation treatments plus preliminary cleaning and descaling processes comply to ASTM standards. Titanium as well as titanium alloy surfaces can be descaled and cleaned to ASTM B600 standards.