A piece of brushed aluminium A collection of brushed stainless steel Breville small appliances A DeLorean featuring non-structural brushed stainless steel panels The Gateway_Arch_in_St._Louis,_Missouri_.html" ;"title="St._Louis,_Missouri.html" ;"title="Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri">Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri ">St._Louis,_Missouri.html" ;"title="Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri">Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri Brushed or dull polished metal is metal with a unidirectional satin Surface finishing, finish. It is produced by Polishing (metalworking), polishing the metal with a 120–180 Grit size, grit belt or wheel then softening with an 80–120 grit greaseless compound or a medium non-woven abrasive belt or pad. Commonly brushed metals include

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's r ...

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow t ...

. Brushed finishes are popular in both

small appliance A small domestic appliance, also known as a small electric appliance or minor appliance or simply a small appliance, small domestic or small electric, is a portable or semi-portable machine, generally used on Table (furniture), table-tops, C ...

s and whiteware, and feature in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

and automotive design. The

Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Some sources consider ...

and

DMC DeLorean The DMC DeLorean is a rear-engine two-passenger sports car manufactured and marketed by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) for the American market from 1981 until 1983—ultimately the only car brought to market by the fledgling com ...

are both

clad Cladding is an outer layer of material covering another. It may refer to the following: * Cladding (boiler), the layer of insulation and outer wrapping around a boiler shell *Cladding (construction), materials applied to the exterior of buildings ...

in brushed stainless steel. The intensity of the brushed finish is specified as a

surface roughness Surface roughness, often shortened to roughness, is a component of surface finish (surface texture). It is quantified by the deviations in the direction of the normal vector of a real surface from its ideal form. If these deviations are large, ...

and is typically 0.5–1.5

micrometre The micrometre (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American and British English spelling differences# ...

s R_a.

Characteristics

Brushing gives metal a distinctive look, as it retains some but not all of its metallic lustre and is given a pattern of very fine lines parallel to the brushing direction. For this reason, it is commonly used for decorative items like jewelry and watches. A brushed finish is susceptible to damage. Brushed finishes also typically have a detrimental effect on

corrosion Corrosion is a natural process that converts a refined metal into a more chemically stable oxide. It is the gradual deterioration of materials (usually a metal) by chemical or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engi ...

resistance. In particular the brushed texture limits the ability of fluid to

bead A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

on the material surface. In the case of stainless steel the grooves of the finish can accumulate chloride ions which break down the

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hard ...

oxide passivation layer, enabling rusting to occur.

References

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