Cleaning Stainless Steel Sculptures – Case Study

Customer success stories | Weld cleaning | Monday, 24 August 2020

How Cougartron ProPlus helped an artist make his stainless steel sculptures shine even more

Cathal Mc Carthy is a renowned visual artist from Ballintubber, Ireland. His breathtaking installations and sculptures have found their place in museums and private collections around the world.

Source: www.cathalpmccarthy.com

The challenge of cleaning stainless steel sculptures after welding

Stainless steel sculptures – like the one recently made for the Louisburgh Secondary School – are subject to the same type of contamination as industrial products after fabrication, i.e. welding.

The removal of heat marks is a particular challenge given their adverse effect on the aesthetic appearance of steel and its corrosion resistance.

The standard of work has to be really high and cleaning up welding/heat marks is always a big problem and takes a lot of time and effort.

Traditional methods such as manual grinding and polishing have proven inadequate in this regard.

They consume too much time and do not guarantee surface (re) passivation, something that is crucial to stainless steel products that are made to last.

So, how does Cougartron help?

Keeping stainless steel sculptures clean and contamination-free with Cougartron ProPlus

Mr. Mc Carthy got his ProPlus machine a few months ago from our trusted dealer Proweld in Dublin and was immediately surprised by its convenience and ease of use.

The Cougatron is really easy and fast to use with a short learning curve, some basic safety precautions and it is very user friendly.

Given the effectiveness of the electrochemical method and the characteristics of this process, it quickly became evident that no grinding or polishing had to be done on the welds to ‘clean them up, which saved many hours of labor.

SEE MORE ABOUT COUGARTRON PROPLUS HERE

The speed of the process also contributed to the initial positive impression of Cougartron equipment. As Mr. Mc Carthy noted, the speed was ‘amazing’ and it was only necessary to ‘dip the brush’ and apply the weld cleaning liquid to the surface in order to obtain satisfactory results.

Wipe off and neutralize and the weld is completely clean. Fantastic.

In addition to significant time savings, the electrochemical method offers a distinctive benefit crucial for the durability of stainless steel sculptures.

It ensures simultaneous cleaning and passivation of the surface, which in practical terms makes the steel resistant to various types of corrosion – in both the short and the long term.

In this way, Mr. Mc Carthy’s sculptures can continue to adorn public spaces, regardless of varying weather conditions and their exposure.

Special thanks go to Proweld for supporting Mr. Mc Carthy with this build. They offer a full range of Cougartron products and various other machines and accessories for welding.