"304SS Corrosion in Seawater"

Question:

"We have experienced a seawater corrosion failure after 3 weeks of 304 W and BR A-269/A-249 AW tubes in a freon condenser. Is this spec a low carbon. Can you lead me to copies of those specs? I beleive 304 is not very tollerant to stagnant SW. Is there any documentation on this?"

Answer:

Type 304 SS is not a good material choice for seawater applications, particularly stagnant seawater. A-269 is an ASTM specification for austenitic SS welded tubes. A-249 is an ASTM specification for welded carbon steel tubes. Both can be found at ASTM's bookstore at http://www.astm.org. There is a wide body of published literature regarding the resistance of various materials in seawater. You might browse to NACE International's website at http://www.nace.org and search their technical literature.

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