FYI: Stainless Steel Fasteners

Stainless steel fasteners refer to a wide range of products including staples, nails, nuts, bolts, paperclips brads and clasps to name a few. In general terms a fastener is anything that can be used to “fasten” one item to another can. So what is the big deal about stainless steel fasteners are compared with just regular fasteners? The big deal comes into play when talking about durability and quality. Two areas what stainless steel outshines all of its competitors.

Stainless steel is an alloy that contains the element chromium. It is this element that allows stainless steel to have its “stain less” properties. The chromium reacts with oxygen in the air to form a protective coating over the steel that resists rusting and corrosion. It's for this reason that many types of fasteners are made out of stainless steel, so they won't rust and corrode over time. Many applications require the ability for the fastener to hold together without losing its integrity or structural strength over long periods of time. Stainless steel fasteners provide this and will often outlast the items they are holding together.

Let's look at a few examples where stainless steel fasteners benefit the items they are holding together. Think about the outside deck on your home or the wooden staircase that leads up to the deck. Each of these items had to be fastened together somehow to keep them in place. More than likely they were nailed in some fashion and hopefully they were nailed using a stainless steel nail, a type of fastener. The stainless steel nail will prevent rust and corrosion from occurring and ensure that the deck and stairs look their best year after year. You don't have to worry about the nail rusting away and the boards becoming lose because with stainless steel nails this simply isn't an option.

Your kids bicycle probably has a number of stainless steel fasteners on it. From the nuts and bolts that hold together the frame to the fasteners that keep the chain in place. Bikes go through a lot of abuse and are exposed constantly to all types of weather. In years gone by bikes were put together using regular nuts and bolts made of different metals. Sure enough, over time that once shiny new bike looked like an old rust bucket. With stainless steel fasteners it is almost guaranteed that your children will outgrow the bike long before the fasteners even think about rusting or corroding.

Medical devices also employ a number of stainless steel fasteners, especially wheelchairs and walkers. Corrosion is the main concern here because users of these devices often rely on them for mobility and they are under a constant strain. By using stainless steel fasteners to keep these mobility devices together they are protecting the patients by virtually guaranteeing that the nuts, bolts and other fasteners that are on them won't corrode away and lose their structural integrity.

Even the stapler that sits on your deck at work relies on stainless steel fasteners – we call them staples! Papers and other documents that are fastened together with stainless steel staples will disintegrate years before the staple even thinks of corroding or rusting away. If you ever took notice of the company bulletin board in the lunchroom chances are that the ghosts of many documents still haunt it through stainless steel staples that are still firmly embedded in the board – some of them may be older than you are!

Now that you know a little more about stainless steel fasteners and their benefits over regular metal fasteners print this article out, clip it together with a stainless steel paperclip and put it away somewhere. Fifty years from now the paper will be brittle and torn but I guarantee you the stainless steel paperclip will still be holding strong.