Why Use Stainless Steel for Furniture?

When you think of home furniture, you probably think about materials like wood, upholstery and other comfortable or aesthetically pleasing materials. If you’re in an industrial setting though, then you want stainless steel furniture that will serve your everyday needs without breaking down.

Most industrial, manufacturing and laboratory settings work with materials that common materials can’t handle. For example, you might be working with corrosive, reactive or hazardous materials. You need furniture that is nonreactive, noncorrosive, nonporous and durable enough to withstand any accidents or spills. It also needs to be easy to clean so that you don’t need to worry about cross contamination.

Stainless steel does all that and more. Not only does it offer every property we just listed, but it’s also fairly easy to work with. This allows us to make many different items, and we can even produce custom items as needed.

What Industries Use Stainless Steel Furnishings?

RDM Stainless Steel Ergonomic Lift Table – Model A-107P-SS-CLG-DROP-TRESP includes Drop-Leaf Extension Table Surface(s), shown here with one on each side. Also shown with Optional Casters (Wheels).

There are many industries that use stainless steel tables and other furnishings. Laboratories are probably the most common because they need stainless steel lab tables that can withstand hazardous or corrosive chemicals, require a sterile environment, need equipment that can be thoroughly cleaned and must have the environment completely under their control. Stainless steel has all these properties.

Manufacturing and industrial settings have many of the same requirements. These often work with even more hazardous materials, but stainless steel is still able to provide workers with protection. Unlike some materials that might react to certain chemicals, stainless steel provides a safe environment for technicians and employees to do their job.

There are other industries that also require stainless steel. Many companies that work with electronics require stainless steel workbenches. That’s because this material won’t discharge static. Imagine the harm one static shock could do while working with expensive electronics. Hours of work and thousands of dollars could be lost to one small shock.

The food industry also uses stainless steel furniture. Due to its nonporous and easy-to-clean nature, stainless steel is ideal for this setting. This is especially true when working with allergens as this industry is highly regulated. This material ensures that workers can thoroughly clean their environment so that consumer safety is safeguarded.

Most Common Types of Stainless Steel Furniture

While stainless steel is very tough and durable, our manufacturer direct service is able to produce a wide range of items. Not only that, but we welcome our customers to request custom items, such as extra large tables, thicker steel, more storage space and so on.

Stainless steel can be turned into nearly anything. Stainless steel carts, workbenches and tables are incredibly common. These all give you a flat surface to work on projects while giving you the protection of stainless steel. Tables are fairly basic, carts have casters and wheels and workbenches can have lighting and places to store equipment.

Stainless Steel Lockers

There are also stainless steel lockers. Not only are these durable, but they also provide the static-free and easy-to-clean environment your lab, cleanroom or manufacturing plant needs. Large storage cabinets can also be produced to fit equipment, manufactured items, personal belongings and more.

While these are the most common items, our quality designed furniture can fit all your furnishing needs. Everything is proudly manufactured in the USA and factory direct.

Key Features and Benefits of Stainless Steel

Many people know that stainless steel is tough and durable. While these are qualities that industrial and manufacturing settings need, the benefits of stainless steel go far deeper than that.

Not only is this material resistant to most bangs and hits, but it’s also resistant to many acids and chemicals. You need furniture that won’t react or be entirely destroyed by small accidents. Stainless steel resists most chemical reactions, ensuring safety and protecting your investment. It’s also nonporous, which prevents chemicals from wearing away or latching to the surface.

Stainless steel is very easy to clean. That might not seem like a huge benefit, but it really is. Imagine that harm that could be done if a chemical or allergen remained stuck to the table’s surface. This could lead to cross contamination, unexpected chemical reactions and numerous other threats.

The last major benefit is that stainless steel doesn’t build a static charge, which is essential for many businesses that need a controlled environment. You don’t need electronics destroyed or chemicals activated by a small static shock.

What to Know Before Making a Purchase

There are several things you should consider before making your stainless steel furnishings purchase. The first thing we suggest is mapping out the environment and finding out what furniture you need. Consider overall sizing and general requirements.

We offer many options, so be sure you consider your needs. For example, let’s say you need stainless steel workbenches. Do they need adjustable height, casters, storage shelves, lighting or extra thick steel? Consider your needs and check our features. If you don’t see a feature listed, then ask us about it. We often accommodate custom requests.

You should also check safety guidelines. You may want to save money by getting thinner material, but safety guidelines might require specific features. It’s also a good idea to consult your team and see what they feel is necessary for operations.

Conclusion

Stainless steel furniture is ideal for many manufacturing, laboratory, industrial and food settings. Not only do we offer a wide range of options and features, but we also help answer questions and work with custom orders. We at RDM Industrial Products would be happy to help with your stainless steel furnishing needs. Contact us today about any questions you have.

The post Industrial Duty Stainless Steel Furnishings – It’s Not New! appeared first on RDM Industrial Products.

You shouldn’t let these wonderful features fool you into complacently thinking that stainless steel furniture is invincible and needn’t be handled with care, however. As with everything else, time, chemical spills, possible laboratory mishaps, and general accumulated use do take their toll on stainless steel carts, tables, lockers, cabinets, and workbenches. To maximize the working lives of all of these things, you’ll need a well-stocked cleanroom and a thorough, established routine of cleaning and maintenance procedures.

Here are 10 critical tips to follow in all stainless steel cleanrooms so that you can get the most out of your furnishings. Some of these will be suggestions about what to do, and others about what not to do.

1. Don’t Clean Your Stainless Steel Furniture With Chlorine

RDM Stainless Steel Casework is available in a variety of Stainless Steel Cabinet Styles: including Base Cabinets, Upper Cabinets & more.

One of stainless steel’s most useful features is its imperviousness to oxidation or rust. Ordinarily, stainless steel tables and other furnishings are made using an alloy of both steel and chromium, the latter of which works to prevent oxidation by keeping oxygen molecules from reacting with the metal. Chlorine and solvents containing chlorine strip away this protective chromium and expose the furniture on which they are used to the dangers of rust.

Do not use anything chlorine-based to clean your lab furniture. That means no acetone, mineral spirits or isopropyl alcohol, among some other things.

2. Stick to Cleaning With a Warm Cloth, Water and Detergent

As simple as it sounds, a good, thorough wipe using some warm water and a damp cloth will be sufficient to handle most mild stains that show up on your stainless steel cabinets or other types of furniture. That should be enough to remove dirt and other simple things. To make sure that the furniture isn’t plagued by any water stains, rinse everything with water once more and gently wipe it down with a dry cloth.

3. Use Solvents for Tougher Stains

If there are fingerprints, oil stains, chemical stains or anything else that’s more difficult to clean on your stainless steel surface, use any good detergent or dish soap to get the job done. In a pinch, baking soda, vinegar and even toothpaste can also be effective.

4. If You Must Use Chlorine, Electropolish Your Furniture First

Let’s say that you’re in a bind. For whatever reason, your lab is fresh out of detergent, soap, baking soda and all other acceptable cleaning solvents. Also, all of the water at hand is dirty or unsuitable. The only thing within reach are those dreaded chlorine-based cleaners. What do you do then?

If you absolutely must use a chlorine-based solvent to clean your stainless steel furniture, it is essential that you electropolish the furniture first. Electropolishing is a process whereby minuscule jagged edges and stray ions are removed from a metal surface. In particular, electropolishing will remove metal ions from stainless steel workbenches or other kinds of lab furniture that would make that furniture vulnerable to corrosion, thus neutralizing chlorine’s chief threat.

5. Regularly Do Some Stainless Steel Passivation

Stainless steel passivation is a process whereby stainless steel can be made less generally reactive to external and environmental chemical influences, particularly to rusting. Oxidation can make your furniture weak and brittle, and you should obviously take steps to prevent it or arrest it. This is what passivation achieves.

The best and simplest way to passivate your stainless steel lab furnishings is simply to clean them with deionized water. You will probably also have to clean furnishings with a nitric acid solution or other mild oxidant to really kickstart the process. Doing this will lead to the formation of a passive film over the surface of your furniture.

6. Don’t Clean Against the Grain

All stainless steel furnishings, from simple cabinets to stainless steel tables with adjustable legs, have a wood-like grain to them. A close glance at any stainless steel surface will reveal that grain. When wiping down your furniture, always follow the grain. If you don’t, you will make it easier for dirt or chemical irritants to build up within the surface as the furniture experiences more and more use. That can cause damage in innumerable ways, from creating ugly and hard-to-remove stains, to cracking, corroding, destroying and breaking apart the stainless steel at its very foundations.

7. Try to Be Gentle

When dealing with particularly stubborn stains, some hard scrubbing may be warranted. Don’t overdo it, though. Scrubbing too hard will create scratches and abrasions on stainless steel’s surface, and these abrasions, however small, are openings through which chemical irritants can later seep in to cause yet further damage. You should therefore use only soft cloths made of materials like nylon or microfiber to wipe down surfaces. Do not use steel wool or any kind of abrasive cleaning pads, liquids or powders.

8. Get Special Stainless Steel Furniture for Cleanrooms

Even though your cleanroom is the place to clean your stainless steel casework and other furniture, the cleanroom itself can use certain stainless steel furnishings of its own. In addition to our quality-designed and factory-direct lockers, workbenches, carts, and stainless steel tables with adjustable legs, we at RDM also make special industrial-quality furniture that is specifically designed for use in cleanrooms. Among our stainless steel cleanroom furnishings are racks where you can store all of your various cleaning tools and solvents, stainless steel tables of various shapes and sizes to keep things close at hand and stainless steel lockers to store yet more critical supplies. Take a look at our stainless steel cleanroom furnishings here.

9. Make Sure to Keep Furniture Polished

A proper deep clean is always great, but to really put the finishing touches on your lab furnishings, you need to make them glimmer and shine. The glimmer of stainless steel is part of its allure, and you certainly wouldn’t want that to fade. To keep stainless steel lab furniture polished and shiny, we recommend using lemon oil, special sprays designed to let your furniture keep its undiminished luster, or any of the many commercial stainless steel polishers that are available on the market.

Truthfully speaking, polishing should really be the third step in a tripartite process. First, you wipe the furniture using some combination of clean water and a solvent, then you rinse it off and dry it with another cloth, and then you spread a few drops of polish onto the surface with another cloth — all moving with the grain.

10. There’s No Such Thing as Cleaning too Often

Cleaning, when done right, does no damage whatsoever to stainless steel furniture and does a great deal to prevent and even repair damage. You can clean your furniture as often as you like. How often to take things to the cleanroom is a personal decision for you to make, but we recommend doing it as often as possible unless some other pressing need prevents you. The more vigorous the work that goes on in your lab is and the more caustic substances and spills there are, the more often you should do so.

Conclusion

High-quality stainless steel furniture is indispensable to research and development labs, factories and types of businesses that are too numerous to mention. RDM’s stainless steel furniture is proudly manufactured in the USA up to the very highest design standards, but even it needs to be cared for. Since you’ll be making a significant investment when you buy stainless steel furnishings, our advice on how to keep things functioning properly should help you get more bang for you buck.

The post Top 10 Tips to Maintaining Stainless Steel Furniture appeared first on RDM Industrial Products.

The types of stainless-steel tables used for industrial purposes are numerous too. Including, adjustable stainless steel lift table, stainless steel science lab tables, stainless steel workbenches and more.

Using Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is one of the preferred materials of worktables mainly due to its strength and durability. Once you purchase a stainless steel table, it will serve its purpose for years to come, and will not damage easily. Moreover, the smooth surface of stainless steel does not encourage the growth of germs and does not let dust and dirt attached to it. However, it is still important to maintain worktables properly to enhance their functionality and longevity.
Following these steps to clean and maintain your stainless steel work table will help keep it looking like new for a long time –

Wipe It Clean Regularly

As mentioned before, stainless steel worktables do not require high-profile maintenance. However, you must keep in mind that industrial workplaces are filled with dust and they have a harsh environment. So, wiping the tables clean on a regular basis is vital for its maintenance. You only need the most basic items for doing it; a soft rag and some warm water. You may consider microfiber towels for the rag as they provide hygiene, as well as the required softness. If you do not neglect the worktables too much and clean it every day and wipe away accidental spills right away, then it will not give you any trouble and be cleaned very easily.

Only Mild Detergent for Stains

While dealing with the stains, soapy water is required for wiping the table surfaces. You may consider detergent for this soapy water. However, keep in mind that you must keep the detergent as mild as possible. Although stainless steel has strong resistance against chemicals, and it will not be damaged by detergent, yet using the harsh detergent on it daily may make it lose its new-like shine gradually over time. Moreover, stainless steel is cleaned very easily, so there really is no need for using over-the-top strong detergents. A common mild soap would be enough for cleaning your worktables.

White Vinegar for Stubborn Stains

Sometimes, you have to deal with a stubborn, long-lasting stain that cannot be removed by soapy water merely. A simple solution to this problem comes with white vinegar. You can spray a bit of it onto the surface of your stainless steel worktable. Then, take a soft towel and wipe it clean. The shiny transformation would be vivid. The secret behind this brilliant solution is the acetic acid that is in the white vinegar. Although acetic acid is an amazing cleaning agent, using it is safe because it does not carry any harsh chemicals.

Bring Back Shine with Baking Soda

The smooth surface of stainless steel does not let dust pile upon it. There are edges and corners in the work tables that are more favorable spots of germs and bacteria to grow. Especially, if your stainless steel worktables have shelves, racks, and cabinets. Then the cabinet doors may develop a lot of dirt at the corners. Moreover, a big reason for stains is the fingerprints of workers. The environment of the workplace itself makes their hands full of dust, dirt, and oils as well, which causes fingerprints all over the worktables. You may use baking soda to clean these stains and get rid of residual dirt at the corners. Baking soda not only removes the dirt efficiently, but it also transforms the dull and old appearance of the tables into shiny and new.

Final Thoughts

The better the care and maintenance you provide for your stainless steel industrial worktables, the longer they will last and serve you.

The post How to Maintain an Industrial Stainless Steel Table appeared first on RDM Industrial Products.