01Six stages, six checks
The order is fixed, and the reason it is fixed is that each stage locks a dimension the next one depends on.
| Stage | What happens | The check |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Drawing review | Datum, units, joint lines confirmed | Every dimension traceable to a datum |
| 2. Plate selection | 304 or 316L, thickness, flatness | Mill certificate and thickness measured |
| 3. Cutting | Outline cut to plan | Overall size within ±1–2 mm |
| 4. Machining | Edges squared and finished | ±0.05 mm at the edge |
| 5. Welding and graining | Bowls, corners, upstands; grain matched | Joint dressed flush, grain continuous |
| 6. Inspection and packing | Measured, photographed, packed | Sheet signed, edges protected |
The two stages where a job can be quietly ruined are four and five: an edge machined slightly out of square is almost invisible on a bench and obvious on a wall, and a weld grained across the grain direction shows as a patch under raking light. Both are checked with the part under a light at an angle, not straight on.
02Flatness, and why plate is not glass
Plate arrives from the mill within a flatness tolerance defined by EN 10051 or ASTM A480 — that is, it is allowed to have some bow and some edge wave. It is not a machined surface, and a countertop made from it inherits that condition.
Three things happen to flatness in the shop. Cutting relieves internal stress and the part can move. Machining an edge does not change flatness but it reveals it, because a straight edge is now visible against it. Welding puts local heat in and pulls the plate.
Say so on the drawing. Flattening after fabrication is a separate operation with its own cost and its own limit, and it is priced as such — it is not something that happens by asking politely in an email.
03Welding at plate thickness
Welding 5–10 mm plate is a different proposition from welding 1 mm sheet. The plate has enough mass to sink heat, which means less distortion than thin sheet — and more chance of a weld that looks fine and has not fused at the root. That is why the check is visual-plus-dressed, not visual only: a weld is not finished until it has been dressed back and the grain run across it.
- TIG for the visible, dressed joints — control matters more than speed.
- Backing gas on the underside where the joint will be seen from below.
- Pickling and passivation after welding, so the chromium oxide layer is restored and the weld does not become the first place to rust.
The last point is the one buyers forget. A perfect weld with no passivation will show rust at the seam within weeks in a wet environment — and the material gets blamed, not the process.
We passivate every welded joint before the part goes to inspection, and we check the joint under raking light rather than straight on, because that is the only angle at which a grained patch shows. If you want to see what our joints look like before you place an order, ask for a photograph of a finished corner in the grain direction you are specifying.
04Two frames, and what each one is evidence of
A photograph of a press brake tells you a press brake exists somewhere. A photograph of finished work tells you something different: that a drawing became a physical object. Both frames below are ours, both are of finished work, and both were taken on our own stand rather than on a site.
They are doing two different jobs. The first shows what has to be cut into a deck — a drainer field, a slotted channel and a plate-rack recess, each with a folded edge. The second shows the surface closing back over an opening: a bowl with a flat cover beside it and no step at either junction. Read together they are the whole argument of this page, because the stage that goes wrong quietly is the one where a cut and a fold have to agree.
And here is what we are not showing you. We hold installation photographs of a real job — an office pantry built on three floors — and they are not on this page. They were shot from three or four metres back to record the fronts matching across a wall, and at that distance the worktop is a thin bright line rather than a surface. A frame like that is fine as a record of an installation and useless as evidence of a deck, so we label the case in writing instead: the project case sets out what was built and what it does and does not prove. If you want the installation set for a job like yours, ask and we will send it with the floor count and the date.
05What you will not see on this page
Photographs of a factory floor, a machine list with tonnages, and a headcount. Three reasons:
They are not evidence. A photograph of a press brake tells you a press brake exists somewhere, not that your part was folded on it. They age badly. A page that claims a machine you sold two years ago is worse than a page with no machine list. They are the easiest thing on a website to fake, by us or by anyone.
What is evidence: the inspection sheet with your drawing number on it, the photographs of your part before packing, and a named person who answers when something is wrong. Those three we provide on every order — and if you want a video call walked round the shop while your parts are on the bench, ask, and it happens during the working day in Foshan.