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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Stainless Steel Fuel Tanks *LINK*
Posted By: Capt Partick McCrary In Response To: Stainless Steel Fuel Tanks (tony)
Date: Sunday, 19 March 2006, at 7:48 p.m.
Tony,
Stainless, at or above the 304 quality rating, is as good a material as you can use for fuel containment.
The potential problem is in the welds and the welder's proficiency in making the welds. Any weld burns away benificial alloys at the molten pool. And filler rods are usually alloyed with a flux agent. So the weld is of slightly less quality as the parent metal.
The third degregation is heat. Not enough heat and you have poor penetration and a weak weld. Too much heat and the surrounding metal around the weld is unduly annealed leading to the potential for cracking outside of the weld itself.
The fourth degration is contamination. Far too many welders take time to really clean the metal around the weld area, weld with contaminated TIG electrodes, and don't keep an inert gas envelope concentrated at the end of a weld.
In all, yes, it's in the technique and quality of the metal that makes stainless steel risky for fuel storage, especially gasoline...
If you can find a Coast Guard certified tank builder, specializing in stainless steel, and is a true craftsman, then you are go to go. Anyone else is a gamble...
NASA, because of their high tech processes, ultimate & consumate maintenance, can get along nicely with their tanks. The real boating world doesn't even come close to that sort of perfection. A NASA built tank would probably cost you around $100K.
Nautic Marine in Ft. Lauderdale & Bobby Kline in West Palm Beach are the only two tank builders that I can personally recommend.
Br,
Patrick
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