Electrode material

Regarding the safety of stainless steel electrodes:

"Chromium can exist in four states. Metallic, divalent, trivalent and hexavalent. In some compounds chromium is in the hexavalent state (valence of +6) and many of these compounds are hazardous. The current European RoHS directive bans the use of six substances, one of which is hexavalent chromium. The ban on hexavalent chromium targets primarily corrosion resistant coatings, such as the chromate conversion coatings applied to zinc plating. Metallic chromium found in stainless steel is not a RoHS substance.

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In stainless steel, chromium is in the metallic state, which is not hazardous."

Comments

By Frank Hilbert at 2010-06-29 03:34:57 Reply

Stainless FTW! But not just any kind of stainless -- some alloys contain nickel. Nickel can provoke a nasty rash: http://www.thedoghouse.org/members/nickelrash.htm

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-06-29 09:11:12 Reply

Not sure if our stainless has nickel or not. We're not custom molding any metallic parts; the electrodes can easily be substituted with any off the shelf part that has a hole for the screw to go in.