Building Up Swagelok's Inventory of Special Alloys

We listened when customers wanted new materials, and they listen to our advice

It's a simple principal, but a powerful one: In order for us to serve our customers well, we need to understand the markets we serve. We need to understand our customer, and we need to understand the application.

Gerhard Schiroky, principal scientist for Swagelok Company, explains in a video how that has changed the kind of materials that Swagelok works with over the years. It is part of a video series produced by Swagelok Company featuring Swagelok executives speaking on topics ranging from quality, customer service, predictive maintenance, and more.

"If you go back many years, we were receiving many quote requests from customers for materials of construction which we did not have," Schiroky says. We started to track these requests, and we started to understand why customers were asking for these alloys. 

Over the years we have introduced different metals, including the Super Duplex stainless steel, which offers extra corrosion resistance. We've also introduced:

• Alloy 400, a nickel-copper alloy. It offers exceptional resistance to hydrofluoric acid to stress corrosion cracking and pitting in most fresh and industrial waters.
• Alloy 600, a nickel-chromium-iron alloy. This strong alloy is highly resistant to chloride-ion induced stress corrosion cracking.
• Alloy 625, a nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy with a small quantity of niobium. This combination provides very good resistance in a wide variety of severely corrosive environments, including hydrochloric and nitric acids.
• Alloy 825, a nickel-iron-chromium-molybdenum alloy designed to resist general corrosion, pitting and crevice corrosion, as well as stress corrosion cracking in a wide range of media. Incoloy 825 stands up particularly well to sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfur-containing flue gases, sour gas, oil wells and seawater.
• Titanium alloys. They have excellent resistance to corrosion in a wide variety of environments including seawater, salt brines, inorganic salts, bleaches, wet chlorine, alkaline solutions, oxidizing acids and organic acids.

If a customer needs an exotic alloy that's new to us, we're always willing to take a look at the request. "We can machine any of our fittings out of almost any material that is machinable," says Jason Wynne, a member of the sales and service team here at Edmonton Valve and Fitting.

But just stocking special alloys was not sufficient. Customers wanted to engage with us.

"They wanted us to recommend which alloy to use for specific applications," Schiroky. Because of their trust in us, "they have acted upon our advice. And I believe they have been very happy with that advice."

Looking for more information on this topic? Download Swagelok's Special Alloys catalogue here for more product facts!

Additional resources

• Check Out Swagelok's Check Valves
• Swagelok's 60 Series Ball Valves Cover a Wide Range of Applications
• Meet Richard Llewellyn: A Fast Learner Helping Customers

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