Many of our products today that we use in our everyday life is a product of stainless steel fabrication. We may not really know it but most of the common shower trays, knives, enclosure and more are crafted through the process of stainless steel fabrication. The whole process starts from a steel fabricator making use of raw pre-fabricated material and turning them into various finish products. For a better understanding of this process, the guide below will walk you through how the stainless steel fabrication in Toronto works.
The Six Basic Steps of Stainless Steel Fabrication in Toronto
Steel manufacturing methods have come a long way from the ancient methods forging. However, the modern way of fabricating steel including stainless steel. With this, here are the main steps on how the process of stainless steel fabrication really works.
Step # 1: Ironmaking Process - The very first step is the ironmaking process, iron is the main component of steel and the first thing is to create it. It will start with an iron ore, lime, and coke, they are placed into a blast furnace to be melted together. It will then result in a liquid form, which is the molten iron. This molten iron contains 4% to 4.5% impurities that make the metal brittle. These impurities such as carbon will be eradicated in the next step.
Step # 2: Primary Steel Making Process - In this process, the impurities contained in the molten iron will be eradicated. There is two process in doing this, the Basic Oxygen Steel making (BOS) and the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF).
- Basic Oxygen Steel Making (BOS) - This process is done by adding recycled or scrap steel to the molten iron while it’s on the furnace. By doing this, oxygen is forced into the liquid to eliminate the impurities the metal and lowering it to 0.5% to 1.5%.
- Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) - In this alternative process, the recycled or scrap steel is fed into an electric arc furnace along with the molten iron. Then it will be heated up to 1650 degrees Celsius to produce a higher grade steel with almost zero impurities.
Step # 3: Secondary Steel Making Process - This process may include degassing, stirring, ladle injection or argon bubbling. This is done by controlling the temperature or by removing specific elements to make the perfect steel composition.
Step # 4: Casting - Once the steel is made, the casting process is now ready to take place. The molten steel will be poured into cooled molds to quickly cool the metal and shape it. The cooled metal is then cut into various lengths which depend on the applications.
Step # 5: Primary Forming - With the process of hot rolling the steel is formed into various shapes. Getting them ready for the final stage of the process.
Step # 6: The Fabrication Process - The final process will be fabricating the steel using various secondary forming methods. These techniques include shaping, machining, jointing, and coating.
That’s how the entire process of stainless steel fabrication in Toronto is done. Those are the main step steel fabrication; some companies may do it slightly differently but it will always be the same as this.