400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
(OP)
Hello all,
I have come across a difficult question and was wondering if anyone can point me to some literature. I have a 400 series corrugated thin plate (409 or 410, hard to tell with PMI due to sever scale) that has literally "burned up". I am trying to figure out if it is even possible for a stainless to "burn"?
I am familiar with thermite, which involves aluminum and rust Fe2O3 (or few other variants as oxidizers) which releases a serious amount of energy, but this is not an easy reaction to get going. On most experiments I did in my delinquent youth it involved very small piles of powder in chem lab experiments for show and tell days. Even then it was hard to get a "good one" for the 8th graders.
Can something similar happen with stainless oxidizing with something? I am not a chemist and have never heard of something like this happening.
For background, (sorry that I am vague, can't say much) this material was at the back end of a furnace. They noticed a fire and had trouble putting it out. Water didn't work and they were required to use a foam to put it out. At the end of the day was left with giant pile of what looks like melted and burned scale (was supposed to be 304 tubes with a 400 series thin plate)
Any thoughts?
I have come across a difficult question and was wondering if anyone can point me to some literature. I have a 400 series corrugated thin plate (409 or 410, hard to tell with PMI due to sever scale) that has literally "burned up". I am trying to figure out if it is even possible for a stainless to "burn"?
I am familiar with thermite, which involves aluminum and rust Fe2O3 (or few other variants as oxidizers) which releases a serious amount of energy, but this is not an easy reaction to get going. On most experiments I did in my delinquent youth it involved very small piles of powder in chem lab experiments for show and tell days. Even then it was hard to get a "good one" for the 8th graders.
Can something similar happen with stainless oxidizing with something? I am not a chemist and have never heard of something like this happening.
For background, (sorry that I am vague, can't say much) this material was at the back end of a furnace. They noticed a fire and had trouble putting it out. Water didn't work and they were required to use a foam to put it out. At the end of the day was left with giant pile of what looks like melted and burned scale (was supposed to be 304 tubes with a 400 series thin plate)
Any thoughts?





RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
It is more likely that this was exposed to a very high temp and oxidized so severely that there is no metal left, just scale.
My hunch is that there was a residue on the heat exchanger (carbon maybe) that caught fire. At high temp in air you will destroy SS by catastrophic oxidation.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
Aaron Tanzer
www.lehightesting.com
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
B.E.
"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."
-George Washington, President of the United States----
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
Ty Ed for the NASA reference, I found a good paper on oxy systems and the materials they use for them.
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
https://www.airproducts.com/~/media/Files/PDF/indu...
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn
An oxy-acetylene cutting torch does, indeed, burn the steel in the kerf of the cut. The burning steel is the primary source of heat in the cutting process.
RE: 400 Series Stainless - Can it Burn