01Six industries and what decides each one
Read the right-hand column before the middle one. That is the requirement that gets missed.
The pattern is worth stating plainly: buyers ask about grade because it is the easiest thing to ask about, and the requirement that actually rejects the part is usually a joint, a finish reading or a piece of paper.
02Pharmaceutical work is a documentation problem
A pharma bench is not harder to make than a restaurant bench. It is harder to prove.
- Surface finish stated as Ra — typically Ra 0.8 µm or better, measured, not eyeballed. That is a graining operation with a gauge reading, not a finish preference.
- Material traceability — EN 10204 type 3.1 certificates matched to the heat number on each piece, not one certificate for the order.
- Weld documentation — weld map, procedure and operator, even for a bench.
- No crevices — a bolted bracket that is acceptable in a restaurant is a deviation in a cleanroom.
What we can do is the fabrication, the Ra measurement and the 3.1 certificates. What we cannot do is invent a validation package we were not asked for at order stage, which is why the question “which documents do you need” belongs before the quotation, not after.
03Marine work fails at the cut, not the plate
The counter-intuitive thing about coastal and marine fabrication is that 316L plate does not rust. The cut edge does.
| Location | What happens | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| Sheared or laser-cut edge | Free iron embedded, rusts in weeks | Edge dressed and passivated |
| Weld toe | Chromium depleted by heat | Pickled and passivated |
| Drilled hole | Contaminated by the drill | Dedicated tooling, re-passivate |
| Grained face | Grain carries contamination along it | Clean abrasive, one direction |
| Fixing into mild steel | Galvanic couple | Isolate with a non-metallic washer |
All five are process steps, not material choices, and they are the reason a marine quote from a shop that does not do them will be cheaper and will fail. Passivation is not a coating; it is a chemical restoration of the chromium oxide layer that cutting and welding disturbed.
04Architectural work is decided by the grain
In an interior, the deciding requirement is not corrosion at all — it is whether two adjacent panels read as the same material.
The fix is a marking scheme, not a better machine: every panel gets a batch and a grain arrow written on the protective film, and the crate is packed in installation order. That costs nothing at the factory and saves a re-make at the site.
05The five questions we ask before quoting
None of them is about dimensions.
- Which industry is this for? It decides the deciding requirement.
- What touches it? Food, chemical, chloride, or nothing. That decides the grade.
- What documents do you need? 3.1 certificates, an Ra reading, a weld map, a dimensional report. Asked late, they are a re-work.
- Is it inspected by anyone but you? A third-party inspection adds a stage and it changes what we photograph.
- How is it installed? Bolted, sealed, welded in place or free-standing. That decides whether we can pre-assemble it.
We fabricate from 0.8 to 12 mm in 304 and 316L, with cutting, forming, welding, machining and graining all in one building, at ±0.05 mm on a machined edge and ±1 mm on an outline. Lead time is 15 working days from a confirmed drawing. Where an industry needs a validation package we cannot provide, we will say so at quotation rather than after the parts are made.
Stainless steel manufacturers · The fabrication work this shop takes on · Food contact compliance · Send a drawing for quotation