Good Morning Everyone!

I currently work as a QA Engineer and Welding Engineer building parts, mostly 300 series stainless steel, for the nuclear power industry. Many customer contracts restrict grinding media to aluminum oxide or silicon carbide or sometimes just aluminum oxide. Our shop’s preference is to use zirconia alumina grinding media as it has a better life and more aggressive metal removal rate. I’ve done a lot of research into the matter and cannot find a basis for the restriction. At most I can find a linkage from ASTM A-380 (industrial standard for cleaning) to the ASM Handbook, Volume 5, Surface Engineering, that recommends the use of aluminum oxide or silicon carbide for stainless steels, but does not restrict anything else.

Does anyone know why this exists?

Good Morning Everyone!

I currently work as a QA Engineer and Welding Engineer building parts, mostly 300 series stainless steel, for the nuclear power industry. Many customer contracts restrict grinding media to aluminum oxide or silicon carbide or sometimes just aluminum oxide. Our shop’s preference is to use zirconia alumina grinding media as it has a better life and more aggressive metal removal rate. I’ve done a lot of research into the matter and cannot find a basis for the restriction. At most I can find a linkage from ASTM A-380 (industrial standard for cleaning) to the ASM Handbook, Volume 5, Surface Engineering, that recommends the use of aluminum oxide or silicon carbide for stainless steels, but does not restrict anything else.


Justin,

The main reason for restricting this type of grinding is to prevent the introduction of IGSCC to piping during plant operation.

leem