Passivation and Material Assessment Contractor in Colorado

Yes, across the Front Range and statewide, on new fabrication and installed equipment. Work is done to ASTM A967 with cleaning per ASTM A380, and the record carries measured chemistry, temperature, contact time, rinse endpoint and verification result. On inherited equipment we survey the materials first, because treatment parameters depend on knowing the alloy.

Because the standards are written around it. The grade determines which treatments are appropriate, since some chemistries suit some alloys and can damage others. It sets a realistic expectation, because a treated lower-alloy steel in a chloride duty will not perform like a molybdenum-bearing grade. And it reveals whether the problem is surface contamination at all or a material selection issue that treatment cannot fix.

A non-destructive field test that establishes the alloy of a component where it stands, without cutting or sampling. On inherited equipment with no certification it is the cheapest useful thing an operator can commission, and a survey covering the vessel, fittings, valves and fasteners often explains a recurring corrosion problem faster than any amount of surface examination.

Not for this purpose. Stainless describes a family with very different corrosion behavior between members, and equipment purchased quickly from a supply chain that grew faster than its documentation practices frequently carries no grade statement and no certification. Some of it is excellent. The point is that without knowing, you cannot select a treatment or predict how the surface will behave.

No. They become a problem when a less resistant component sits in the most demanding part of the duty, or when dissimilar metals are coupled in a way that drives galvanic attack. A survey identifies where the weak link actually is, which frequently turns out to be a fitting, a fastener or a valve rather than the vessel everyone was worried about.

It cannot add alloying elements, rebuild metal lost to pitting, make a grade suitable for a duty it was never selected for, or correct a galvanic couple designed into an assembly. Where a survey finds one of those, the honest recommendation is component replacement or a design change, with treatment applied afterwards to the corrected assembly.

Almost always because a material or design problem is being treated as a surface problem. Passivation restores a surface; it does not change what the surface is made of or what it is exposed to. A recurring schedule with no lasting improvement is the clearest available signal that the diagnosis has not been made, and the survey that would make it costs far less than another year of treatment.

Yes, and it is usually where attack begins. Welding without adequate purge or post-weld cleanup leaves a chromium-depleted, discoloured zone alongside the weld that is markedly less corrosion resistant than the parent metal. Treatment combined with proper tint removal addresses it; treatment alone over an untouched tint zone does considerably less than the certificate implies.

Barely. At 8.62 cents per kilowatt-hour against a national average of 8.13 (EIA, 2024), heating a passivation solution is a short one-off load. The dominant cost is equipment downtime, so the useful planning question is how work can be sequenced vessel by vessel around production rather than what the heating costs.

Use the form on this page or call 201-450-8280. Tell us what equipment is involved, whether you have material certification for it, whether this follows new fabrication or an existing corrosion problem, and where the attack appears. Photographs are genuinely diagnostic. If the equipment was inherited or bought used, say so, because the survey comes before the quote.

Handheld X-ray fluorescence for most stainless and nickel alloy identification, with optical emission spectroscopy where carbon content or low-alloy steel matters, applied to each pressure-retaining and product-contact part rather than to one representative piece. Skids are assembled from parts of different origin, and one reading does not describe a skid.

Ethanol itself is not corrosive to stainless, but cold ethanol condenses moisture on equipment and the plant extract residues are mildly acidic, so extraction equipment corrodes at the wet, residue-laden points rather than from the solvent. Passivation follows cleaning of those points.

The lower grade part becomes the site of attack, and in a system carrying chlorides or acids it pits and rusts while the surrounding 316 looks sound, so the failure appears local and puzzling. Identifying and replacing the odd component fixes what repeated passivation of the whole system cannot.

They are identified, assessed for galvanic attack on themselves and their neighbours, and replaced with stainless where the fluid is conductive or the part is product-contact, because passivation chemistry attacks aluminium and brass and cannot be applied to a system containing them. Mixed-metal systems are sorted out before they are treated.

Heat tint from unshielded welding is common on equipment built quickly, and it is removed by pickling or mechanical means before passivation. Its presence often indicates other fabrication shortcuts worth inspecting for.

The identified alloy of every wetted component, the condition of welds and surfaces, the mechanism of any damage, and a recommendation for each item: passivate, repair, replace or leave. It is the specification for the treatment that follows.

Not materially. Passivation chemistry works by surface reaction and is not altitude-dependent, though hot processes and rinse water temperatures are checked against the local boiling point.

After solvent residue is removed, with citric chemistry on confirmed stainless, and with attention to the small-bore fittings and gaskets where residue and corrosion concentrate. Equipment with unknown alloy is identified first.

Brewing equipment is mostly 304 and 316 and passivates well, with beerstone and organic deposits removed first. Colorado's brewing sector has a great deal of equipment that has never been passivated since installation.

Cleaning and passivating a test area and observing whether rust returns: surface rust from free iron does not, while rust from a lower grade, an embedded contaminant or pitting does. The test is cheap and settles whether the equipment is worth treating.

Rust staining from embedded free iron or from contact with carbon steel is exactly what passivation removes. Staining from pitting on a low-grade or damaged surface returns, because the pit is still there.

With material certificates required for every wetted component, with fabrication and passivation records, and with acceptance inspection before payment. Equipment bought on price without certification is where the survey work comes from.

External atmospheric corrosion is mild in the dry climate, which is a genuine advantage. Internal wetted surfaces see the process chemistry regardless of the weather.

Neutralised and discharged under the plant's pretreatment permit, or collected for disposal where the permit does not accept it. Water discharge in Colorado is regulated closely enough that the route is confirmed first.

Identify the alloys. Everything else, from whether passivation will help to whether the equipment should stay in service, follows from knowing what the metal is.