If you own a stainless manufacturing facility, it's important to familiarise yourself with the things that could potentially have a negative effect on the quality of your finished stainless steel products. Continue reading to discover more. 

The cleanliness and sharpness of the cutting machines' blades

Virtually all stainless manufacturing facilities use cutting machinery to create their stainless steel products. This machinery typically features one or more electrically-powered blades, which slice through sheets of steel and in doing so, alter their proportions.

As the blade rotates or moves back and forth, debris (in the form of tiny stainless steel particles and airborne dust) will begin to accumulate on its surface. The process of cutting pieces of steel will also gradually result in the dulling of the blade.

This debris and the dulling process can affect the quality of the finished stainless steel product, as they will both impede the ability of the blade to create clean, precise lines when it cuts through a piece of steel. If a dirty, dull blade is used, the steel may end up with rough, rather than smooth edges.

As such, it's critical to instruct your employees to wipe down the blades of the cutting machinery in your facility on a daily basis and to ensure that the blades are periodically sharpened.

The frequency with which they will need to be sharpened will depend on how often the blade is used (i.e., a blade which is in almost constant use throughout each workday will need to be sharpened far more frequently than one which is used for an hour or two per day).

Improper storage of the processed pieces of stainless steel

The quality of your facility's stainless steel products may also be affected by the way in which you choose to store the processed pieces of steel.

For example, if the finished pieces of stainless steel are stowed next to bottles of undiluted sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, there is a much greater risk that these steel products may end up being splattered with these chemicals. This could result in acid-induced corrosion, which could have a negative effect on the steel's structural strength as well as its appearance.

Similarly, storing stainless steel products on tall shelves, which employees can only access with special equipment (such as stackers or boom lifts) increases the risk of the stainless steel products being dropped from a height. Being dropped from several feet above the ground is likely to cause indentations in the steel which could also impact its appearance and functionality.