Safe use of Stainless Steel Consideration of health and safety issues is important when customers are processing or using stainless steel, and when scrap items are returned for re- cycling.
As stainless steel is inert and non-reactive when employed correctly, potential health and safety impacts are extremely limited. This explains why stainless steel is so widely used in medical appliances and for equipment and tools in the food processing industry. In addition to long-term experience with stainless steel in a wide variety of applications, the material has also been tested and reviewed for possible health effects
The Company only stocks and sells stainless steel grades that are standardised and proven to be safe for their recommended use. To ensure that all products sold by the company comply with the specified requirements, only suppliers whose production sites are certified in accordance with the ISO 9001 quality standard are used. In addition, the company’s sales and distribution Service Centres are also certified in accordance with this quality standard.
Below is a full material safety datasheet from a leading Asian manufacturer.
Scope - RoHS & WEEE
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive, commonly referred to as WEEE. This is aimed at electrical and electronic equipment manufacturers and has two main aims:
- Manufacturers will also have a responsibility for recycling products at the end of their life and there are targets manufacturers must meet.
- To eliminate the use of environmentally sensitive substances from the manufacturing process of electrical and electronic equipment. To do this, the WEEE directive refers to the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive.
The main objective of the R0HS directive is to eliminate the use of four metals and 2 flame retardants. For each of these substances a maximum concentration value of 0.1% by weight in electrical and electronic equipment is permissible:
- Lead
- Mercury
- Cadmium
- Hexavalent Chromium
- Polybrominated Diphenyls
- Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers
In addition, there is an extra clause covering the exceptions which includes Lead, when used as an alloying element where the maximum concentration values are:
- 0.35% by weight in steels (including stainless steel)
- 0.40% by weight in aluminium
- 4.00% by weight in copper alloys
Statement
Our suppliers have confirmed that we do not have a problem in supplying material that fully conforms to the RoHS directive and as a Company we can thus make the following statement:We can confirm that the levels of:
- Lead
- Cadmium
- Mercury
- Hexavalent Chromium
- Polybrominated Biphenyl (PBB)
- Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether (PBDE)
are all below the maximum permissible levels stipulated in the European Directive 2002/95/EC (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), for all materials supplied by us.
The only exception to this is where a customer orders a grade of material where the British, European or International Standard covering that grade requires the level of one or more of the substances to be in excess of the RoHS Directive. In this case, the material will contain a value of each substance in line with the requirements of the standard.
