text: Steel which utilizes the EPS process to remove surface scale shows few differences from steel which utilizes acid pickling to remove surface scale. "Downstream" industrial processes such as galvanizing, cold reducing and painting of EPS-processed steel strip show it to be interchangeable with acid-pickled steel strip. This also holds true for common sheet metal fabrication processes, such as laser cutting, plasma cutting, stamping, welding, bending, and roll forming – no meaningful difference between steel strip using the EPS process and steel strip using acid pickling.
  An area where the difference between EPS-processed steel strip and acid-pickled steel strip is apparent is visual appearance. Steel which has undergone EPS processing exhibits a more uniform, lustrous appearance, as shown in Figure 4. In the EPS process, the impact of the abrasive particles on the steel surface serves to "smooth out" minor surface imperfections such as scratches, pits, roll marks and silicone streaks.
  Another area of difference between EPS-treated steel strip and acid-pickled steel strip is rust resistance. Conventional acid-pickled steel strip is frequently coated with a thin film of oil to serve as a barrier to contact with oxygen so as to prevent rusting. EPS-processed steel is inherently rust-inhibitive and, therefore, needs no oil or other coating to prevent rusting. Many "downstream" processes and steel fabrication processes must have the steel's oil coating (or other surface contaminants) removed as a precursor step of the process.  Use of EPS-treated steel in these processes precludes the need for any such "oil-stripping" precursor step, thereby simplifying the process.