Testing for 316 stainless...

[smcadman]

At an old job, we had a small handheld little machine with an electrode and an aligator clip that we would hook up to stainless to find out if it was type 316 or not. It had a bottle of some type of liquid and a test strip. This machine would send a current through the test strip and the liquid, and it would indicate if it was 316 by changing colors. Am having trouble finding one of these or something similar. Does anyone out there know where to find one?

Thanks in advance,
Flores

 

[arunmrao]

You are referring to a simple spot kit used for identifying different metals. This is widely used by the trading community in India. If you need I can help sending you one such kit.

 

[kenvlach]

Systems Scientific Laboratories sells alloy ID kits including
ALLOY DETECTOR 2000 IDENTIFIES: Stainless steels (304, 302) 303, 316, 330, 416, 431, (420, 440) alloy 20cb, 17-4PH™, 17-14CuMo™, and many other stainless alloys. Corrosion resistant metals, 300 series, 400 series, monel™, copper nickel 70-30, copper nickel 90-10, nickel, hastelloy™ alloys, inconel™ 600 & 625, incoloy™, waspaloy™, stellite™, glass seal alloys and many others as well as carbon steels & alloy steels, Electro-plated or coated metals, cadmium, zinc, tin, nickel, chromium, gold & silver Aluminum alloys, (1100, 5000, 6000), 2011, 2024, 3003, 7075 and casting alloys. Copper, brass, naval brass, bronze, aluminum bronze, nickel silver, leaded brass/bronze, wrought and cast. Alloys listed above can be distinguished from each other. (Items in parentheses will test alike.)
Alloy Detector 2000 $785.00

http://www.alloyid.com/master.html

You may also be interested in the following [note: portable XRF units are highly expensive & may require a radiation license]
Thermo MeasureTech's XRF Analyzers are the preferred NDT (non-destructive testing) metals analyzers for the inspection industry for national safety and ISO compliance.
Quickly analyze 229 preprogrammed alloys or customize the list to your needs

http://www.thermo.com/eThermo/CDA/Products/Product_Detail/1,1075,14159-137-X-1-11949,00.html

Recognized as the developer of the first commercial coulometric tester, more Kocour testers are in use today than all other competitive makes combined.

http://www.kocour.net/home.htm

Passivation Tester 2026
Determines Passivation of Stainless Steels

http://www.koslow.com/2026.html

[I think this one is about $50K]
XLi Series Ultra-portable XRF Analyzer Fast, Non-destructive Chemical Analysis of: Solids · Liquids · Slurries · Soil · Ores Concentrates · Metal Alloys · Precious Metals

http://www.niton.com/xrf.html

 

[smcadman]

Thanks for the replys. Manytimes the sheets come already stamped "type 316L", but sometimes they are not. We have had some problems with those on the floor mixing these sheets with the 304, and it becomes difficult to differentiate the two. We have some conveyor parts that are in salt mines, so 316 is a must.

Flores

 

[kenvlach]

For the first source above, they also have a smaller kit, less expensive for stainless steels & other corrosion alloys only.
Alloy Detector 410L $445.00

http://www.alloyid.com/stainless.html

If you have to persuade higher-ups for purchasing approval, they have a color photo that shows how 316 SS is distinguished from 304 by detection of Mo dissolved from sample:

http://www.alloyid.com/index.html