REACH Regulation

(Artikel auf English) The REACH regulation was established by the European Union to better protect health and the environment from the dangers of chemicals. REACH, an acronym for Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals, defines how and under which conditions specific chemicals can be used within the EU. A solution to the above-mentioned problems involving stainless steels is surface hardening. This is not a coating process but a diffusion-based surface hardening process. Traditional methods for surface hardening corrosion-resistant stainless steels have been available to the industry for some time. However, they mainly have two disadvantages: they reduce corrosion resistance, and the hardness value of steels hardened with nitrogen or carbon often decreases rapidly at the material core. This means that the hardening depth is only a few microns, and the underlying structure is very soft, which can potentially lead to an „eggshell effect.”