How To Choose The Right Grade Of Stainless Steel Fasteners
One of the challenges you are likely to face when you decide to do any kind of manufacturing is how to ensure that you use the right types of fasteners for the job. On the surface, this might not seem like such a big deal, but it will actually influence a lot including the quality of the products you make. Ensuring that you do as much as you can to end up with high quality fasteners that are ideal for the job will also influence how much it will cost to produce the goods you are manufacturing.
One of the things you need to get right when choosing fasteners is the grade of the material. This is particularly important if you are working with steel fasteners. You should always remember that not all fasteners such as steel hex head cap screws or steel socket set screws will have the same properties; they are likely to differ in performance depending on the grade of steel used to make them. Some of the techniques you can use to ensure that you use the right grade of steel include:
Assess the application you will be using them for first
Before deciding on which grade of steel you should use, you should first find out what conditions they will be exposed to. This is because this will influence the type of steel you should get. 316 steel, for instance, is more corrosion-resistant compared to 304 steel, and should be the obvious choice if the fasteners are going to be exposed to a lot of moisture.
The conditions in which the fasteners will be exposed to will depend on the function of the item they are putting together, as well as the likely geographical region in which they will be used. For instance, if you are manufacturing products that are likely to be used within 10 miles of a sea or ocean, making sure that they are corrosion resistant is something that you should take seriously.
Have a thorough discussion with your vendor
If you are buying your stainless steel fasteners from a vendor, you may also get the information you need from them as well. Of course, this will only work if the vendor in question is knowledgeable in all aspects of stainless steel fasteners. In addition to that, they also need to have had a lot of experience in the field as well.
Getting some general knowledge
In addition to that, you can also undertake to get some general knowledge regarding stainless steel fasteners. This is a process that is not very difficult to undertake considering that most of the information you need can be found online. You only need to do a search and you will get some basic information about the different grades of steel and the application for each.
In summary, if you intend to use stainless steel fasteners for manufacturing, you should avoid picking them at random. Getting the right grade will ensure that you end up with high quality products, and that the cost of production is also kept low.
