time and again, we find that the nickel content of failed 316 is below specification, until… Thanks to Josh Lyons of the Thaitanium Project for the heap of corroded hardware pulled from the walls of Railay/Tonsai. Without such real world samples, all is mere speculation. We find a broken bolt from Railay/Tonsai which is absolutely […]
Tag: austenite
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Nice Bar Stock – pay much for it?
A tale of poor materials quality control. I needed a couple of samples of 304 for the development work I was doing, so I cut them from the threaded end of the bolt illustrated below. It’s nothing special, just a random sample from my large collection of old, glue-in, machine bolts extracted from crags around […]
The title should be fair warning. This one is going to get geeky. If an anchor component is at all attracted to a strong magnet, don’t install it at a crag with a reputation for eating hardware. If you asked your supplier for 316, yet find the product is attracted to a strong magnet, don’t […]
It’s not just the material you use, but critically, it matters how you use it. I have been researching the possibility that the brittle fractures we are seeing at Cabo da Roca and Sesimbra in Portugal are hydrogen embrittlement (HE) fractures mediated via the presence of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). Austenitic stainless steels like 304 […]