Stainless Steel Casting
As a professional stainless steel casting company in China, CFS Foundry provides custom stainless steel casting solutions with a wide range of stainless steel alloys.
- Utilizing Precision Investment Casting Process
- Finest Dimensional Accuracy & Surface Finish
- Can Cast Stainless Steel Parts Within 0.02kg-60kgs
What is Stainless Steel Casting?
Compared with other processes, stainless steel casting can create complex components with fine detail and good dimensional accuracy, which reduces or eliminates post-machining operations. It is also a great alternative to the welding fabrication process, as several stainless steel parts can be cast in one piece, which saves time and cost for additional welding or assembly.
Gallery of Stainless Steel Casting Parts
Common Stainless Steel Casting Alloys
| 304 | The most widely used austenite steel, may be referred to as A2 stainless. |
| 304L | This grade has slightly lower mechanical properties than the standard 304 grade, but is still widely used in casting for its versatility |
| 316 | The second most common austenite steel, also referred to as A4 stainless. SS316 primarily serves to enhance resistance to corrosion. |
| 316L | Lower carbon content than 316 stainless steel, which reduces the sensitization effect caused by the high temperatures involved in welding. Besides, it shows better resistance to stress-corrosion cracking. |
| 17-4 PH | Most common precipitation-hardening martensitic stainless steel, which uses about 17% chromium and 4% nickel. |
| 2205 Duplex | Used for its good mechanical properties and excellent corrosion resistance properties. |
Stainless Steel Investment Casting Process
The stainless steel casting process at CFS Foundry is a precise and complex manufacturing method, which is known as stainless steel investment casting. It can produce high-quality cast stainless steel parts with precise dimensions and intricate details. We start the process with mold design, where our engineers create a steel mold following the design of the desired part. The mold cavity matches the shape exactly and is always made out of CNC Machining. Once the mold is ready, wax is injected into it to form a wax pattern, which has the same dimensions as the desired part. This process will repeat many times until the amount of wax patterns reaches the order quantity. When all the wax patterns are ready, our workers will remove the deburrs of wax patterns and assemble them onto a central wax tree one by one.
Next, the wax assembly is dipped into a ceramic slurry and then coated into fine sand. Then, the whole assembly undergoes a drying and hardening process at room temperature. This may take several days until the shell is hard enough. Once the shell hardens, it will undergo a dewaxing process, where the whole assembly will be heated in a furnace under high temperatures. When the wax is completely melted, the hollow ceramic shell is formed and is heated to enchance its strength. The molten stainless steel is then poured into the preheated shell until the cavity is fully filled.
After the solidification of the metal, the shell is broken away, leaving the solid cast parts inside. Workers will cut the cast pieces one by one from the sprue and remove the sprue gate to achieve net shape castings. Finally, the cast parts will still undergo a surface finishing process to achieve a smooth surface. CFS Foundry is very professional in the stainless steel investment casting process; we can design and customize each cast stainless steel part to meet the drawing’s specification.
Surface Finishing Options
Surface treatment or surface finish is very popular post treatment method to smooth or brighten the surface of stainless steel castings. See the types of surface finishes for stainless steel castings in below:
| Type | Image | Introduction |
| As Cast |  | Pickling is a chemical treatment way to eliminate surface dirts like oxide skin, rust, welding spots, etc. And passivation is a process that forming a new abundant chromium protective layer, thus to improve the anti-oxidation ability of stainless steel castings. |
| Machined Finish |  | The most widely used surface treatment method used to clean, strengthen (peen) or polish the surface of stainless steel castings. Low cost. |
| Electropolishing |  | Used to remove surface tiny burrs and improve the brightness of stainless steel castings. Electropolishing can greatly increase the corrosion resistance of stainless steel parts. |
| Vibratory Polishing |  | A type of surface treatment process used to deburr, descale, clean, and brighten stainless steel castings. The surface looks smooth and a bit shining, but less brightness than mirror polished surface. |
| Brushed Polishing |  | Brushed polishing involves variable grain abrasive brushes using unidirectional lines to create a homogenous finish to casting surfaces. |
| Mirror Polishing |  | The brightest surface polishing way that can achieve a very smooth and shining surface like a mirror finish. Only suitable for outside areas of stainless steel castings. |
| PVD Coating |  | PVD coating is a vacuum deposition process used to protect stainless steel casting surfaces from wear, friction, harsh chemicals, and heat.There are multicolors for selection. |
Stainless Steel Casting Applications
Cast stainless steel parts have wide applications for their custom capabilities and great corrosion resistance. CFS Foundry has rich experience in the field of stainless steel investment casting. Below is a list on some examples of cast stainless steel parts:
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Food Machinery
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Valve & Pump Components
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Marine Application
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Pipe Fittings
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Medical Parts
Almost all the food processing equipments are made in stainless steel due to its rust prevention capability. Such food processing equipments are normally assembled by many stainless steel components. There are several processing processes to produce these stainless steel components, such as casting, forging, welding, machining from plate, ect. Among them, casting is the most flexible manufacturing process to produce complex shaped components for food processing machinery. So stainless steel casting is widely used for food machinery application! Typical food machinery components made in stainless steel casting process are: metal grinder components, coffee machine components, etc.
Stainless steel casting is the most widely used technique for valve & pump components. For its complicated design of valve and pump components, stainless steel casting is able to produce any complex shape. Valve and pump components from stainless steel casting are durable enough for severe service applications. So stainless steel casting is a cost efficient way and a popular selection for pump and valve applications. Common valve & pump components made from stainless steel casting are : valve body, valve disc, valve bonnet, valve gland, pump body, pump impeller, etc.
Stainless steel casting are used in marine applications which require parts that are strong with extremely high resistance to heat, abrasion and corrosion. CFS foundry uses a wide range of stainless steel alloys for recreational, governmental and commercial marine components. Stainless steel marine castings can be polished to a mirror finish for maximum corrosion and abrasion resistance.
New marine grade stainless steel investment castings for marine application could be supplied electro polished and machined from our company, saving our customers 30% on their current spend.
Pipe Fittings are components used for connecting, terminating, controlling flow, and changing the direction of piping in many different industries. When purchasing pipe fittings, considering the application, these pipe fittings are normally made of stainless steel 316, which is higher strength and more corrosion resistant than stainless steel 304. Stainless steel casting is the most cost effective method for small volume production.
Usually produced stainless steel cast fittings are elbow, tee, bushing, close nipple, etc. Our machining capability can meet any machining requirement like threads.
Stainless steel casting is able to produce a wide range of components for medical application. We work with numerous of stainless steel materials, including stainless steel 304(L), stainless steel 316(L) and more, to create custom parts that meet the tight tolerances and dimensional precision required by medical application. Stainless steel cast parts we manufacture for medical OEMs are included in: dental & surgical tools, Implantable components, operating tables & other operating room equipment, MRI machines, X-ray equipment, stretchers, wheelchairs & similar products, injury stabilizing devices, and more.
One Stop Solution At CFS Foundry
01. Stainless Steel Investment Casting
At CFS Foundry, we have the most advanced machines, from 280T to 2,500T, which enable us to provide our customers with high-quality parts. Having years of experience, advanced machinery, and a wide range of materials, we can assure you that we will meet your product requirements.
We have been proudly serving our worldwide customers for more than 20 years, and every time we make sure that we deliver the highest quality parts to our customers. We always take responsibility for the quality of our products. This is why CFS Foundry is the leading investment casting company in China.
02. Heat Treatment
Like other steel castings, stainless steel castings may also require heat treatment to achieve a certain properties. Solution treatment is the most common heat treatment process after stainless steel casting.
Soultion treating of stainless steels castings depends to a great extent on the type and grade of stainless steel castings. Main purpose of solution treating stainless steel castings is to ensure that the properties can be improved (e.g. corrosion resistance, ductility, or hardness), or for further machining operation, so that the stainless steel component can perform in its intended service environment.
Note: Before solution treating operation, surface cleaning is necessary performed on stainless steel casting blanks to remove oils, grease, and other types of residue. Left on the stainless steel casting surface during heat treating may occur degrading the corrosion resistance or other properties of products.
03. Post Machining
Although stainless steel investment castings can achieve a higher size accuracy and surface finish, it does not mean machining can be saved for all the stainless steel cast products. Machining will have to be performed when there is a closer tolerance and surface finish requirement that casting can not reach.
CFS Foundry has built a reputation to do machining after stainless steel casting. Our specialized machining services enables us to manufacture stainless steel castings with intricate geometry and detail, while maintaining high precision and accuracy. Our company has equiped with full sets of machining equipmement from manual turning & milling to complex CNC machining services. We offer the capabilities to machine stainless steel castings from several ounces up to 100lbs.
Inspection after machining is also very critical, we utilize manual inspection equipment and gages as well as the latest in coordinate measuring machine (CMM) technology to measure and record all the dimensions. This ensures our customers always get the quality they want.
Stainless Steel Casting FAQs
Stainless Steel casting is a good choice when your designed part has complicated details, which is not availble by forging or machining. Meanwhile, your parts require good resistance corrosion.
As its name suggests, stainless steel casting can produce parts that will not easily rust. Confirmed with other metals, stainless steel casting displays perfect corrosion resistance. Next, stainless steel casting offers great design freedom, no matter the shape is complex or simple, it is always castable.
The main advantage of stainless steel casting is its higher cost when comparing with other metal materials.
If cooperating with CFS Foundry, you can enjoy competitive prices while good quality when comparing with other suppliers. Besides, we can provide one stop solution to deliver finished parts, including cnc machining and surface finishing.
Usually, it will take us around 30 working days to finish the mold and first samples, and another 40-50 working days for mass production.
CFS Foundry mainly produces stainless steel castings in investment casting process, which is also known as lost wax casting. Normally, we can control such precision stainless steel cast parts with general liner tolerance ISO 8062 CT5-6 grade.
| ISO8062(GB/T6414) CT5-CT6 | |||||
| Linear Dimensional Tolerance (mm) | |||||
| ＞ | ≤ | CT5 | CT6 | ||
| 0 | 10 | 0.36 | ±0.18 | 0.52 | ±0.26 |
| 10 | 16 | 0.38 | ±0.19 | 0.54 | ±0.27 |
| 16 | 25 | 0.42 | ±0.21 | 0.58 | ±0.29 |
| 25 | 40 | 0.46 | ±0.23 | 0.64 | ±0.32 |
| 40 | 63 | 0.5 | ±0.25 | 0.7 | ±0.35 |
| 63 | 100 | 0.56 | ±0.28 | 0.78 | ±0.39 |
| 100 | 160 | 0.62 | ±0.31 | 0.88 | ±0.44 |
| 160 | 250 | 0.7 | ±0.35 | 1 | ±0.5 |
| 250 | 400 | 0.78 | ±0.39 | 1.1 | ±0.55 |
| 400 | 630 | 0.9 | ±0.45 | 1.2 | ±0.6 |
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