Printer Rails Are they Stainless Steel?

[tornitore45]

I have several printer rails, they look still shiny after years. My first thought is that are some kind of stainless but are magnetic.
If they were not magnetic it would be a no brainer
Do you know if they may possible be some of the magnetic SS
If there are good reasons such material choice, add to the possibility that are made of SS
Does SS give recognizable sparks?

Thanks

[pete]

Possibly one of the ferritic stainless series, the one's I've tried machining are pretty hard and at least seem to be fairly rust resistant indoors at least. Google shows it could be 409, 430, 430L I assume means the addition of lead, 439, 442, 444, and 446. Afaik only those 400 series of stainless are both magnetic and can be hardened. So if there's additions of both iron and carbon then yeah it should show sparks. If that's what it is and they really are stainless, there should still be a lot less attraction with a magnet than more normal steels. I'd call them lightly magnetic compared to steel. Guessing only, but there probably not as rust resistant as 304 because of the higher iron content.

[whateg0]

I would think hard chromed to be more likely

[Steggy]

Depends on the printer. The heavy-duty, commercial units use to hammer out high-volume, multipart forms use head guides made of carbon steel that has been hard-chromed, ground and polished. I've got a client who has such a printer that has been in service since 1996. The guide rod looks like new and the head carriage is still a precision fit on it.

[jcfx]

I've always assumed ink jet printer rails were hardened alloy steel.

[tornitore45]

They are not chromed, they are out of a standard run of the mill commercial unit.

They are not hard at all.

[Steggy]

I've always assumed ink jet printer rails were hardened alloy steel.

The nozzle carrier in an ink jet printer sees virtually no mechanical stress. The guide rods in consumer-grade ink jets are run-of-the-mill steel with sufficient finishing to make for a precision bearing fit. Eventually the fit between the nozzle carrier bearings and the rods gets sloppy and printing starts to include streaks, fades, etc.

On the other hand, the rods in a commercial-grade ink jet, especially a large-format unit, are quality steel that has been ground and polished in order to guarantee that they are dead straight over the distance the nozzle carrier has to travel (24+ inches in a D-size printer, such as below).

D-Size Large-Format Printer