Saturation in “nonmagnetic” stainless steel

Scientific equipment often uses “nonmagnetic” stainless steel, relying on the steel’s nonmagnetic behavior to leave external magnetic fields unaltered. However, stainless steel’s permeability can rise significantly when it is welded or machined, possibly perturbing an external field. Such perturbations will diminish well above the stainless steel’s saturation point. The authors measured the permeability of both welded and machined 304 stainless steel as a function of an external magnetic field, and found that both saturate at fields of approximately 0.25 T

Vacuum Compatibility of 3D-Printed Materials

The fabrication fidelity and vacuum properties are tested for currently available 3D-printed materials including polyamide, glass, acrylic, and sterling silver. The silver was the only material found to be suitable to ultrahigh vacuum environments due to outgassing and sublimation observed in other materials.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, preprin