12th Tooling Conference & Exhibition - Tooling 2022

For industrial mechanical food processing steps, like cutting, slicing, grating, passing or similar applications, tools of martensitic stainless steels are preferably used because of their high hardness and corrosion resistance. The latter is decisive to avoid contamination of foodstuff by elements transferred from the steel alloy into the processed food.
In this work various martensitic stainless steels in different heat treatment conditions were investigated regarding their metal release behavior in food simulants. Therefore, migrations tests were carried out according to the guideline of the Council of Europe. During the examination, the migration of specific elements was determined and compared to defined release limits, which take into account the different toxicity for the human body. The results allow an assessment of the suitability of the tested grades and heat treatment conditions as contact material for different types of food.