Stand mixer is a common kitchen device in almost every family, used for making cakes, biscuits, pastry, icing and so on. It works by a gear-driven mechanism to rotate a set of “beaters” in a bowl containing the food or liquids to be prepared by mixing them.
Flat beater, or mixer blade, is the critical attachment in a stand mixer, which is for combining any mixture that has a normal to heavy consistency. For cooking purpose, the flat beater is designed and produced in stainless steel for good corrosion resistance. Stainless steel casting of flat beater can have a good size accuracy, smooth surface that requires minimum machining.
Material: Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is used to produce flat beater for stand mixer, because it is one of the most durable, versatile, and worry-free metals available.
Stainless steel has around 10-11% chromium, when stainless steel flat beater is exposed to air, the chromium in stainless steel forms a film of chromium oxide over the surface of flat beater. This film is passive and non-toxic, and most importantly, it prevents the stainless steel flat beater from rusting by shielding it from air and moisture. Even if the flat beater gets scratched, the chromium oxide reforms seamlessly.
This gives us all the excellent properties of stainless steel flat beater without the worry of rust. It’s also non-reactive, unlike aluminum and iron, so we can use it for mixing acidic foods.
Besides stainless steel, cast aluminum flat beater is also available.
Investment Casting of Stainless Steel Flat Beater
Due to the shape of flat beater, it is produced by stainless steel investment casting manufacturing process. There are several specific steps in the entire process to design and create the stainless steel flat beater.
1. Wax Patterns Creating & Assembly – Wax patterns of the desired flat beater are produced by injection moulding using a metal die. These wax patterns are attached via a ‘gate’ to a central wax stick, referred to as a ‘tree’, to form a casting assembly, and mounted on a pouring cup.
2. Shell Building – A shell is built by immersing the assembly in a liquid ceramic slurry and then into a bed of extremely fine sand. Several layers may be applied in this manner.
3. Dewaxing – Once the ceramic shell is dry, the wax is melted out in an autoclave, creating a shell with cavity. The cavity is exact the shape as desired flat beater.
4. Casting – The shell is filled with molten stainless steel until it fully fills the cavity of the shell, then waiting for solidification.
5. Knock out – When the stainless steel has cooled and solidified, the ceramic shell is cut off by vibration.
6. Cut Off – The flat beaters are cut away from the central tree using a high speed friction saw.
7. Finishing – Minor finishing operations, such as grinding, shot blasting, etc are undertaken to produce a stainless steel flat beater identical to the original wax pattern.
There are several advantages to cast stainless steel flat beaters in investment casting process. For instance, it provides reliable process controls and repeatability that are maintained from casting to casting. The mold which is injected into wax to form patterns, has lower cost than other casting molds. While the quality tooling produces a quality stainless steel flat beater, which is cost efficient in the long run. With investment casting, we even do not need to worry about the defects caused by sand casting process. Investment casting can creat quality flat beaters eventally in a cost effective way.
CFS Foundry, as an experienced stainless steel foundry in China, has over 32 years of experience creating ISO-certified stainless steel investment castings. We have rich experience in stainless steel investment casting of components for various industries including flat beater. If you are looking for a good supplier for your stainless steel flat beater project, pls feel free to contact us!
Related Articles:
