Improved Cleanability

Electropolishing for Better Clean-ability – Since the EP surface is essentially free of sharp “scratch” marks found on MP surfaces, the EP surface is much easier to clean and appears to result in reduced bacterial contamination. This was studied by J. W. Arnold et al of the USDA-ARS Russell Research Center. (copy of this article will be posted to "White Paper" under the "Resources" tab on header) Two different surfaces were studied, a 2B (<10 µin Ra) mill finish and an electropolished surface, using one "heat" of material for the study. The surface morphology was measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) which provided a comparison in the Z dimension as shown in Figure 1 (pending).

Figure 2 (pending) compares the bacterial attachment between the 2B mill finish and the EP finish metal specimens processed by two different manufacturers. Although there is an appreciable difference in attachment between the two manufacturers, in both cases the EP surface has a significant lower level of bacterial attachment. It was also concluded that the AFM is very useful in performing studies involving surface roughness compared to contact instruments.