Stainless steel guardrails

This makes stainless steel railings an indispensable part of safety infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the material, quality and design of railings play a key role in enhancing workplace safety in production environments.

Stainless steel railings for the highest standards

The purpose of railings can be summarised in a few words: railings serve to guide people and provide fall protection for both people and objects. Handrails offer people a means of support. This may sound mundane and may well be the case in a domestic setting. In industrial and commercial settings, the construction of railings is always a key element designed to ensure workplace safety. It is therefore not surprising that railing construction is strictly regulated.

Handrails, knee rails and toe boards – in both private and public sectors, different regulations apply to railings with regard to workplace safety. For instance, requirements regarding openings and the ability to climb over them are not a priority in industrial settings. Instead, the highest demands are placed on the height of the railing or the minimum fall height. For example, a fixed railing must be installed where the fall height exceeds 500 millimetres. By comparison, in the private sector this is only required where the fall height is one metre or more. Further requirements for railings include:

Industrial railings must be 1.10 metres high. In private settings, however, a height of one metre is sufficient.
The distance between two posts must not exceed 1.50 metres.
The railing must have a knee rail and a toe board. The toe board must be at least 100 millimetres high.
The distance between the handrail, knee rail and toe board must not exceed 500 millimetres.
When using vertical infill bars, the distance must be less than 180 millimetres.
If the handrail is interrupted, the distance must be more than 50 and less than 120 millimetres.

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Stainless steel railings

Railings of all kinds are subject to high standards, particularly with regard to the material used. Not least because of their wear resistance, railings in private, public and industrial settings are typically made from stainless steel. Alloys containing molybdenum, nickel, titanium or chromium ensure the unique properties of stainless steel thanks to their composition. The material is considered to be largely rust-free and successfully withstands the effects of the weather without losing its tactile and hygienic properties.

Alloy steels are tough. They are therefore able to successfully withstand acid, salt water or extreme heat. The following tables illustrate the advantages offered by different grades of stainless steel:

Ferritic stainless steels

Material numbers 1.4003, 1.4016, 1.4105, 1.4509, 1.4512, 1.4521

Advantages	Disadvantages
Very good resistance to chlorine	Only weldable to a limited extent
Good corrosion resistance	Cannot be hardened
Good cold and hot formability	Cannot be heat treated
	Limited machinability
	Low strength

Typical applications for ferritic steels include domestic and kitchen appliances, fittings, turbines, surgical instruments and hydraulic engineering. Ferritic stainless steels are magnetic.

Austenitic stainless steels (V2A steel)

Material numbers 1.4301, 1.4307

Advantages	Disadvantages
Very high corrosion resistance	Potential for stress corrosion cracking
Low thermal conductivity	Thermal expansion
Very good weldability	Cannot be hardened
Good cold and hot formability
Acid-resistant
Temperature-resistant up to 600°C

Austenitic stainless steels are used in sectors such as the food industry, vehicle manufacturing, as well as in the fields of domestic appliances, sanitary fittings, railing construction and for stainless steel pipes. One of their key properties is that V2A steels are non-magnetic. One restriction to note is that austenitic stainless steels in the V2A group are not suitable for use in swimming pools or for contact with seawater.

Austenitic V4A is suitable for special requirements. Two per cent molybdenum is added to the stainless steel. The result is a stainless steel that is significantly more resistant to chlorine and aggressive substances such as salt water. Against this background, V4A stainless steels with material grades 1.4404, 1.4571, 1.4435 or even super-austenites such as 1.4529 are used in shipbuilding, swimming pools or components that come into contact with seawater. This is seawater-resistant stainless steel. This is indicated by a PREN (Pitting Resistance Equivalent Number) greater than 32.

Martensitic stainless steels

Material numbers 1.4057, 1.4021, 1.4418

Advantages	Disadvantages
High wear resistance	Difficult to weld
High cutting durability
Can be hardened
Can be heat-treated
Very good temperature properties
Good formability
High strength

Not least because of their high strength, martensitic stainless steels are the material of choice in the mechanical and plant engineering sectors.

Austenitic-ferritic stainless steels (duplex stainless steel)

Material numbers 1.4362, 1.4460, 1.4501, 1.4452, 1.4462

Advantages	Disadvantages
Good weldability	Limited machinability
High notch toughness
Good formability
Good corrosion resistance

Duplex stainless steels combine the properties of austenitic and ferritic stainless steels. This makes the material ideally suited for use in the oil industry and in all applications that come into contact with salt water.

Stainless steel – design possibilities for railings

As a material, stainless steel offers a wide range of possibilities for the design of railings. This is due, on the one hand, to the properties of stainless steel described above and, on the other, to its visual appearance. It should be noted that stainless steel is ideally suited to all parts of a railing – posts, infill and handrails. Combinations with other materials often even give railings that certain something.

The tactile qualities of the material really come into their own, particularly with stainless steel handrails. Wear-resistant. Rust-free. And a real pleasure to the touch. Added to this are unrivalled hygienic properties, which make stainless steel the material of choice. Thanks to its good formability, ergonomic requirements for stair and balustrade designs can be easily met. Round, oval, angular – anything is possible. As a general rule: the smoother the surface, the less likely dirt deposits are to adhere to the surface of the stainless steel. At the same time, this means: the more polished the surface, the more corrosion-resistant the stainless steel is.

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Stainless steel – construction techniques for railing construction

A whole range of different construction techniques are available for modern stair and railing construction using stainless steel:

Bending
Screwing
Bonding
Interlocking
Welding
Water jet cutting
Plasma and laser cutting

The preferred welding method for staircase and railing construction using stainless steel is TIG welding. The tungsten inert gas fusion welding process is characterised by particularly clean workmanship, high seam quality and its universal applicability. Or to put it another way: TIG welding meets the highest standards. However, the same applies here: as a rule, the weld seams must be mechanically finished. It is also important to avoid so-called bimetallic corrosion – that is, the contact of stainless steels with other metals. Otherwise, extraneous rust will form as a result of the contact between stainless steels and unalloyed or low-alloy steels.

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