Stainless Steel Casting Overview
Stainless Steel Foundry is the end manufacturer of stainless steel castings. Maybe you will ask why stainless steel is so popular in investment casting process? What are the advantages of such material?
Corrosion resistance: All stainless steels have a high resistance to corrosion. Low alloyed grades resist corrosion in atmospheric conditions; highly alloyed grades can resist corrosion in most acids, alkaline solutions, and chloride bearing environments, even at elevated temperatures and pressures.
High and low temperature resistance: Some grades will resist scaling and maintain high strength at very high temperatures, while others show exceptional toughness at cryogenic temperatures.
Aesthetic appeal: Stainless steel is available in many surface finishes. It is easily and simply maintained resulting in a high quality, pleasing appearance.
Hygienic properties: The cleanability of stainless steel makes it the first choice in hospitals, kitchens, food and pharmaceutical processing facilities.
Life cycle characteristics: Stainless steel is a durable, low maintenance material and is often the least expensive choice in a life cycle cost comparison.
CFS Stainless Steel Foundry
Most of stainless steel foundries are only limited to supply stainless steel casting blanks, and no other value-added services can be provided. Due to the limitations, lots of customers have to do other operations in their local places, which will add their production cost, and seems not so cost saving. CFS is a comprehensive company that can supply all related services for stainless steel investment castings, such as mold making, casting, heat treatment, machining, surface finish, custom package, etc. All these services enable us to become one stop shop of stainless steel castings.
Casting Method – Silica Sol Casting
“We’re designing a stainless steel cap for a water bottle, and we’re still finalizing the design. I attached our current 3D model and renderings to give you an idea of what we’re thinking. It has such a designed shape that we’re interested in the metal casting process. We aren’t metal casting experts, but have had water glass casting recommended to us.” One of our customer Brooke says. The stainless steel cap is quite small, just 63g. When i checked this information, i was superised at the casting method that Brooke referred in the email. How can this small stainless steel component be produced by water glass casting process?
Water glass casting is mainly used to produce carbon steel and alloy steel castings. For such small stainless steel components, silica sol lost wax casting is the only manufacturing method. Both the surface finish and size accuracy of water glass casting are much worse than that of solica sol casting. Obviously, the person who recommended water glass lost wax casting is really not professional.
But you may have to ask, what is silica sol casting?
Silica sol casting process is the main investment casting process of CFS foundry. Our foundry has its own silica sol factory which not only supply all silica sol molding material for our own foundry, also supply high quality silica sol for other stainless steel foundries around Ningbo area. We have been developing new technology of adhesive material to achieve much more economical and effective adhesive material for stainless steel casting industry.
Silica sol castings are mainly used for stainless steel parts in high corrosion resistance and precision dimensions, since stainless steel components by silica sol casting method can have much better surface quality and less geometrical deviation of dimensions. The main stainless steel castings in this casting method include medical components, stainless steel fittings, marine hardware, and furniture decoration etc.
Stainless Steel Grades List:
Type 304: The most common of austenitic grades, containing approximately 18% chromium and 8% nickel. It is used for producing stainless steel casting components for chemical processing equipment, for food, dairy, and beverage industries, for heat exchangers, and for the milder chemicals.
Type 316: Contains 16% to 18% chromium and 11% to 14% nickel. It also has molybdenum added to the nickel and chrome of the 304. The molybdenum is used to control pit type attack. Type 316 is used in chemical processing, the pulp and paper industry, for food and beverage processing and dispensing and in the more corrosive environments. The molybdenum must be a minimum
of 2%.
Type 410: Basic martensitic grade, containing the lowest alloy content of the three basic stainless steels (304, 430, and 410). Low cost, general purpose, heat treatable stainless steel. Used widely where corrosion is not severe (air, water, some chemicals, and food acids. Typical applications include highly stressed parts needing the combination of strength and corrosion resistance such as fasteners.
Besides above stainless steel grades, CFS Stainless Steel Foundry can also customize duplex stainless steel castings and super duplex stainless steel castings.
Other Value Added Services of CFS Stainless Steel Foundry
Heat Treatment
There are a variety of heat treatment methods used for investment castings. But for stainless steel castings, the only heat treatment method is solution treatment, which is used to improve the inner structure and will be convenient for post machining. CFS Stainless Steel Foundry has its own solution treatment shop, so we are able to do heat treatment in-house directly, which can save both
time and money.
Machining Capability
Although the size accuracy of stainless steel castings is higher than other castings. Sometimes, machining is still required after casting, such as machining threads, drilling holes, ect. Equipped with various machining facilities including CNC centers, we are able to do different machining operations in our stainless steel foundry.
Surface Treatments
To improve the surface finish of stainless steel castings, our foundry can provide all kinds of surface treatments for stainless steel castings, including: Shot blasting, Electropolishing, Mirror polishing, Vibratory polishing, etc.
Advantages of Choosing CFS Stainless Steel Foundry
There are several advantages to choosing CFS Stainless Steel Foundry for your stainless steel casting needs. Some of these include:
- Expertise: The foundry has years of experience in the industry, and its team of engineers and technicians has the expertise to deliver high-quality parts that meet your exact specifications.
- Quality: CFS Stainless Steel Foundry has a strict quality assurance process in place that ensures that all parts produced meet the highest quality standards.
- Flexibility: The foundry has the capabilities to produce parts in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and complexities. This allows for customized solutions to meet your specific needs.
- Competitive pricing: CFS Stainless Steel Foundry offers competitive pricing for its investment casting services, ensuring that you get high-quality parts at an affordable price.
- Fast turnaround: The foundry has a fast turnaround time, which means that you can get your parts quickly and efficiently.
Customer Feedback on CFS Stainless Steel Foundry:
“I want to thank you for your interest and service! From the beginning it has been wonderful to cooperate with you!” Our customer Mike says. Each time when our customer received our goods after delivery, we would always ask for the feedback on the selling or working performance of our goods. Thanks to our full capabilities of stainless steel castings, we have been always keep well business relationship wih our customers. In addition, due to our impressive after-sales service, our customers are all satisfied with our quality and services.
Looking for a reliable China foundry for stainless steel castings? Pls do not hesistate to get in touch with us!
