Stainless steel is an incredibly useful material, especially in industrial and manufacturing settings. In your factory, you probably have a lot of stainless steel, and you may not even know it. The following shows just how much stainless steel is incorporated into industrial plants and manufacturing factories.

Stainless Steel Valves

Factories and plants that utilize pressurized air, gas, water, and liquid systems all contain valves. These valves open and close either manually or electronically. Either way, most of them are made of stainless steel because stainless steel cannot rust, corrode, or break under pressure. If you walk around your own plant, you can spot many of these valves and what liquid or gas lines they control.

Stainless Steel Boilers

Some stainless steel valves are connected to stainless steel industrial boilers. The boilers are comprised of double-walled tanks that can maintain pressure levels necessary for boilers to function. The stainless steel is the perfect metal for boilers because of its strength and endurance. The connected valves help relieve some pressure in the event that there is too much pressure building inside a boiler that is in need of repairs.

Stainless Steel Plumbing

​Connected to both stainless steel valves and stainless steel boilers are stainless steel pipes. There are many stainless steel pipes in use in factories like yours, and most of them are used for the transport of water and other liquids. The valves connect to the pipes, the pipes connect to the boilers, and the boilers connect to more pipes that reach throughout the plant. When the pipes become clogged, pressure builds. Valves release that pressure.

Stainless Steel Equipment

A lot of the equipment in an industrial or manufacturing plant is made from stainless steel. Much of it is electroplated with a colored powder coating of paint. You might not be able to spot it or recognize it, but it is there. If you remove panels from equipment to check circuitry or perform regular maintenance, you will see that the panels are made of a sheet metal. If they are not hammered aluminum, they are probably steel. Steel will be a little thicker and a little heavier than the hammered aluminum, and as stainless steel, it will have a silvery chrome appearance on the inside surface of the panels. 

If the equipment is encased in stainless steel, there is a good chance that internal components are also stainless steel. Over time, you should have no trouble recognizing what is steel and what is not. Then you will realize that everywhere you look there is some stainless steel.