Can a Metal Detector Detect Titanium, Surgical Steel & Jewellery?

Long ago when metal detectors were older, they struggled to find materials such as titanium, but now, thanks to advanced technology, titanium is one of the most common metals you can find and comes in all kinds of objects such as rings and necklaces. 

The same goes for stainless steel, which is used for surgical steel and used in all kinds of jewellery, but even though these metals can be found, this doesn’t mean that they’re easy to find.

Both titanium and stainless steel are low in magnetic properties and also low in electrical conductivity making detection with a magnetic field much harder and requiring the adjustment of metal detector sensitivity and discrimination. 

So as we can find out more about how to detect titanium and surgical steel, we have put together a short guide below about these type of metal objects, how to detect them, common real-life objects you can find, suitable machine types and whether or not these metals will set off a walk-through detector. 

So without further ado, let’s get into this detection guide!

Is Titanium Easy To Detect?

Titanium is a transition metal, it has low magnetic metal content along with poor electrical conductivity meaning it is not easy to detect in electromagnetic fields compared to metal such as silver.

For the best detection, it’s ideal to use high-quality machines that operate at a low frequency for these metal targets.

You will also need to set the right discrimination settings for light metals and choose a good general-purpose metal detectors model with ground balance so as you can filter out minerals from real metal titanium.

Common Titanium Objects 

Even though titanium isn’t as easy to find as some other heavy metal types this doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of objects by metal type. and a lot of the objects that you can find are made up of other alloys which increase their worth.

We have listed out a few below. 

• Screws. 
• Pocket Knives. 
• Jewellery. 
• Hammers. 
• Cutlery.

Is Stainless Steel Easy To Detect?

Now let’s move on to surgical steel which is a type of stainless steel, these metals have low magnetic properties and low conductivity just like titanium, except they are very popular to use for piercings and metal implants. 

If you are looking for surgical steel pieces of metal then you should avoid using a gold digger metal detector or a beach detector, instead choose devices of a low frequency and utilise relic modes.

In terms of surgical steel itself, this can also be picked up by normal detection, however, if we are talking about airport security metal detectors, they will like this pass over this due to them being used to the detection of implants and having a low sensitivity of metal detection.

Common Stainless Steel Objects 

Stainless steel objects can be found in the ground in various forms despite them being low conductive metals, from metal piercings to rings and cooking sets, stainless steel comes in a variety of different forms and pieces of metal. 

We have listed a couple below.

• Rings. 
• Earrings. 
• Bracelets. 
• Cooking pans. 
• Rubbish bins.

What Metals Cannot Be Detected By a Metal Detector? 

Some metal detector devices will not be able to detect stainless steel if it is at deep depth and the size of the metal is very small.

We have listed some other elements that a metal detector will struggle to detect below.

• Plastic. 
• Diamonds. 
• Paper. 
• Pearls. 
• Bones. 
• Liquid. 
• Glass.

Will Surgical Steel Piercings Set Off An Airport Detector? 

As we mentioned above, surgical steel piercings are likely to go through airport metal detectors with little issues, this is because the detector would be subject to too many false alarms if they had the sensitivity high enough on the machines to detect this small size of metal. 

Airport metal detector models, in particular, will not have their sensitivity high enough, to pull you for a search because of harmless metals in your body, but if you have metal prosthetics or maybe orthopaedic implants then you might set off the detector. 

In all cases, it’s best to bring a medical document if you have artificial joints or surgical screws and notify the security before you go through the detection, remove quality metal body jewellery piercings too if you want to eliminate setting off the metal detector alarms.

Will Titanium Set Off An Airport Detector?

Titanium implants, titanium rings and titanium screws, can these set off an airport metal detector? 

Well, it is possible that this presence of metal can set off a metal detector but it is unlikely due to its low conductivity, for example, most people can pass through metal detector devices with typical metal implants, prosthetic metal implants and orthopaedic implants with no issues. 

However, if you are still concerned about the airport detection alarm going off due to your titanium detection of implants then you should travel with a medical card that proves you have orthopaedic materials for security purposes.

Frequently Asked Questions About If a Metal Detector Can Find Titanium, Jewellery & Surgical Steel

Will a metal detector find silver? 

Yes, a metal detector can find silver extremely well due to its high conductivity, it can detect all kinds of objects from iron age relics to silver watches and silver rings.

Does iron content affect how a metal detector detects? 

The more iron content in an alloy then the less conductive it is and the harder it is to find out on the field, luckily, there is a lot of objects that contain iron so it’s easy to find a large number of iron objects.

What are refined alloys?

A refined alloy typically means when metal is mixed with another metal contaminants or another element. The refining process is then done industrially.

Will a metal detector detect hip piercings, tongue piercing and other precious piercings? 

No, a low sensitivity function metal detector will not pick up these piercings due to them being small and filtered out by setting metal detecting devices on a lower sensitivity threshold.

Can a metal detector find fake silver? 

Fake silver will not have the conductive properties of real silver so it is unlikely an electro-magnetic field created by the energy of metal detectors coils would pick it up.

Will there be a metal detector response to metal buttons on my jacket?

No, metal buttons are similar to metal prosthetics and piercings which will unlikely be detected by a security metal detector because of their low sensitivity, however, when using a hobby detector you might be able to find metal buttons.

Can A Metal Detector Detect Titanium or Surgical Steel as Well?

Yes, metal detectors and gold detection can typically pick up titanium and surgical steel. Both materials have magnetic properties that make them detectable by most metal detectors. However, the sensitivity of the metal detector and the size of the object can affect the detection process.

Last Words

To conclude, metal detectors can detect incredible titanium pieces, lost titanium jewellery and more due to the new technology inside of these machines, surgical steel can additionally be picked up by metal detectors, but probably will not raise an alarm as the sensitivity on these professionals is set low to avoid it going off too often.