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WJE Primer: Red Lead Oxide Staining

 

Terne Coated Stainless Steel (TCS) was manufactured by Follansbee Steel from about 1968 to 1997. It consists of Type 304 stainless steel sheet with an eighty percent lead/twenty percent tin-alloy coating on both sides. The thickness of the coating was approximately twenty-five microns. TCS had many advantages over traditional terne metal (lead/tin alloy on steel sheet) for roofing and cladding.

In this WJE Primer article, Jeffrey Levine discusses how changing atmospheric pollutants can discolor lead-tin-alloy-coated stainless steel roofing.