Marine vessels must use considerable amounts of bronze marine hardware and alloy marine hardware due to the corrosive conditions that they work under. Using normal steel or unprotected metals results in corrosion that could leave a vessel crippled our at sea. The importance of using non corrosive metals on board marine vessels is seldom discussed but the accessories mounted on-board marine vessels play a bigger role then people may have estimated.

Before discussing the importance of

bronze marine hardware we must understand what this hardware consists of, to be able to better understand the role they play on-board marine vessel. There are many small components that are made of bronze on-board marine vessels, day to day components like door handle, water taps, door hinges, pipe hose clamps among hundreds of other components are made of bronze.

Bronze is preferred for this work since it is a cheap yet strong alloy that does not corrode over time due to the corrosive effect of sea water and the constant 100% humidity conditions that marine vessels experience throughout service. There are many other alloys that may be argued to be better or stronger but these alloys like aluminum are expensive to use on a marine vessel due to the vast amount of the alloy marine hardware that is used on one marine vessel.

Since marine vessels comprise of many different seal-able chambers that remain open or used during normal operation they can also be sealed in case a vessel is damaged and is taking water. These hatches must be air tight and withstand high pressure; using corrosive metals on the moving parts of the hatches could result in disaster since corrosion could creep undetected and compromise the integrity of the hatch. This is a example of a major problem that could occur but simpler problems occur that could also be life threatening, door handle have been noted to cause of distress for sailors who may visit a remote section of the vessel and jet trapped in a room due to a corroded door handle designating and trapping the sailor inside a isolated room for hour or even days before he is rescued.

Due to the vast size of marine vessel and the

relatively few personnel on-board getting in to a situation like this could mean the other sailor may realize you a missing but not know where to find you quickly, for these reasons alloy marine hardware has been adopted to maintain the safety on-board marine vessels. Using bronze marine hardware has been adopted due to the commercial point of view, since alloys are expensive compared to normal materials but the prices could have big differences and ships consume large amounts of alloy marine hardware, they could increase the cost of marine accessories by a considerable amount of money, but safety must be considered before cost and in this case bronze marine hardware is the best materiel that can be used to maintain the integrity of marine vessel parts that may be prone to corrosion due the sea water and humidity the marine vessels must endure throughout service.