Stainless steel and aluminum are not happy in direct contact, so we fit a plastic isolating washer between the surfaces, as shown above. The stainless steel fasteners are coated with an anti-corrosive compound (the type varies with depending on the situation).
Posted by Steve Dashew (February 3, 2010)
February 12th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Do you generally use nylon for isolation, or uhmw (or something else)?
February 14th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Hi Steve:
We typically use a hard plastic which does not compress or hold moisture. Nylon is not good in either regard.
February 28th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
I want to fix a sail track aluminum to a steel deck and thought of using sail batten as a non compressable isolation. I will be using top hat washers. Would this be a good idea or is there another materil that would do a better job
February 28th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Two issues here, Keith:
Isolation, and getting a good seal. For the seal, we usually fit a high density neoprene which acts as a very nice seal around the fasteners. If you have a good paint system, and use an anti-sieze material on the fasteners, this will usually do the trick. If there is any chance of your track working the deck, then you will want a thin piece of plastic as an isolator + the gasket. Any thin sheet plastic will do the job.
April 30th, 2013 at 11:13 am
Hey, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your website in Firefox, it looks
fine but when opening in Internet Explorer,
it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads
up! Other then that, terrific blog!
April 30th, 2013 at 11:21 am
Thanks for the heads up; any chance the overlapping is coming from the size of your browser window? And is it just the masthead? Sometimes there’s repeating in IE depending on how wide or narrow you’ve got your browser window sized. Try narrowing or widening it and let me know if that makes a difference.
Thank you!
–sarah
February 28th, 2014 at 10:28 pm
Why not just use aluminum stanchions? I understand that it would not be as “shiny” as stainless but I figured it would lower maintenance (no need to polish or replace isolation washers) or am I missing something?
March 1st, 2014 at 11:09 am
You are not missing anything, Tim:
Aluminum is easier on maintenance then stainless for maintenance. This is simply an aesthetic decision. For the FPB 78 we are going to switch to aluminum for both aesthetics – we like the look – and practicality.