Stainless steel

Culture & Context

304 and 316 alloys are common in healthcare and are safe for contact with body tissue.

Common stainless steel is also widely used in food processing equipment as it is chemically inert, making it non-reactive to most corrosive processes and materials, it is also nonmagnetic.

Process & Production

A hard steel available in several alloys and suitable for hand and machine working.

It is also readily available in different presentations, i.e., tube of different sections and thicknesses, wire of different thickness, sheet metal, and bars.

Manufacturing processes include CNC machining, piercing and cutting with industrial, DIY and jewellery associated tools, 3D printing, (https://www.materialise.com/en/industrial/3d-printing-technologies/metal-3d-printing)  sandblasting and etching, welding, and folding. 

With specialized equipment it can also be formed and cast.

Recipe Details

In the samples shown, Stainless steel fasteners have been modified in a lathe to become strong, low-profile poles, Stainless steel welding wire of .9 millimetres in diameter has been bent around the poles by hand and sharpened with a file and emery paper to a pinpoint. 

Stainless steel was chosen for its clean bright look and its strength, even at a very thin profile, i.e., the poles having only one millimetre of thread onto the 1-millimeter plate.