Why Citric Acid Passivation is Important for Stainless Steel

The process of acid cleaning and Citric Acid Passivation is based on the state of the art technology in which environmentally friendly and safe citric acid is used to remove the free iron from the surface of stainless steel. Stainless steel is composed of a blend of metals, majorly iron, chromium, nickel and in a few cases molybdenum and manganese alongside other materials are in little quantities. This one of a kind mixture enables the special property of corrosion resistance by developing an outer protective passive oxide layer.

The surfaces of stainless steel can be made extremely resistant to corrosion if they are passivated and cleaned in a proper way before its use. No matter how durable or strong your stainless steel is, once the corrosion gets started, it will only get worse, being self-catalyzing and incessant. In toxic surroundings, the development of the corrosion site will rise with speed. Therefore, proper passivation and cleaning of surfaces before their use is necessary to attain maximum resistance to corrosion.

The prevention of corrosion using Citric passivation with the help of CitriSurf technology has proven to be a vast advancement as opposed to the conventional formulations of nitric acid. After removing the iron from the surface, the citric acid develops a water soluble complex with the iron ions, putting them together so that they no longer can have a negative impact. The CitriSurf bath will not let the iron precipitate again like nitric acid is known to do. Additionally, citric acid does not pose health and environmental risks that are present with nitric acid.

The basic characteristics of CitriSurf products are non-corrosive, non-toxic and biodegradable. Citric acid is the natural organic acid found in oranges and other citrus fruits. It is usually regarded as safe (GRAS) and is commonly used in several foods and beverages. This means that CitriSurf is suitable for the environment and can usually be released into sanitary sewage systems with a little waste treatment to meet the standards of the environmental agency.

On the other hand, nitric acid is very toxic in nature, poses significant personnel hazards, and threatens property as well. Hence, to Remove Rust from Stainless Steel, there is no better alternative than Citric Acid Passivation and you can easily get this solution from Reba Safer Chemical.