The smallest parts carry the biggest responsibility
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When designing a highly durable stainless steel structure, it is completely natural to focus your attention and most of the budget on the largest, most visible components, such as large beams, structural profiles, or main panels.
However, the success and profitability of a project are not measured only by the size of its parts, but by the continuity and homogeneity of its materials.
Investing in a magnificent stainless steel structure to guarantee decades of service life loses its meaning if the fixings, anchors, and fasteners are overlooked. These small elements represent a minimal percentage of the total cost, but if they are chosen from a less effective material, the protection chain of the entire assembly is broken, compromising the integrity of the work.
If you have selected stainless steel for the main components of your design, completing the system with stainless steel fasteners is the only logical decision to shield your investment for the long term.
Why must stainless steel be present from start to finish, even in the smallest screw?
- Same protection: just like the large elements, stainless steel fasteners contain that minimum of 10.5% chromium, which spontaneously generates its nanometric and self-healing passive layer when interacting with oxygen.
- Zero hidden costs: by maintaining material homogeneity, the need for maintenance coatings or paints on the joints is eliminated, drastically reducing future project life-cycle costs.
- Unified durability: it ensures that the load-bearing capacity of the entire structure remains uniformly intact throughout its service life.
- Prevention of galvanic corrosion: when joining dissimilar metals (such as a carbon steel screw on a stainless steel beam), a galvanic cell is created in the presence of moisture. The less noble metal acts as a sacrificial anode and corrodes at an accelerated rate. Using the same material eliminates this risk entirely.