Stainless Steel Beads

Stainless steel beads have a density of 7.9g/cc. They are used mostly for grinding leaves and seeds. They are made of Type 316 stainless steel - the most corrosion resistant available.

Stainless steel beads are relatively expensive but can be cleaned and reused.  See here for methods on bead sterilizing and cleaning.

A more economic and time-saving option is to substitute chrome steel beads for the stainless steel beads.  Chrome steel beads much less expensive than stainless beads.  After beadbeating they can be quickly retrieved from the microvial with a magnet and discarded (i.e., no cleanup, no cross contamination).

With either stainless steel or chrome steel beads, common polypropylene microvials may break if 'dry' grinding or cryo-grinding is attempted.  Our stainless steel microvials with silicone rubber caps or our XXTuff polypropylene vials are recommended for this application.