This practice covers recommendations and precautions for cleaning, descaling, and passivating of new stainless steel parts, assemblies, equipment, and installed systems. These recommendations are presented as procedures for guidance when it is recognized that for a particular service it is desired to remove surface contaminants that may impair the normal corrosion resistance, or result in the later contamination of the particular stainless steel grade, or cause product contamination. For certain exceptional applications, additional requirements which are not covered by this practice may be specified upon agreement between the manufacturer and the purchaser. Although they apply primarily to materials in the composition ranges of the austenitic, ferritic, and martensitic stainless steels, the practices described may also be useful for cleaning other metals if due consideration is given to corrosion and possible metallurgical effects.
