01Four decisions, in order
Every bench enquiry resolves to these four, and they have to be decided in this order because each one constrains the next.
| Decision | Options | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Load | Static tooling, assembly, wash-down | Plate thickness, frame section, number of legs |
| 2. Span | Legs at 800 / 1200 / 1800 mm centres | Deflection, bracing, undershelf |
| 3. Environment | Dry workshop, wet wash-down, chemical | Alloy: 304 or 316L |
| 4. Fixing | Floor fixed, adjustable feet, castors | Frame stiffness and how it is levelled |
Buyers usually start at thickness, which is the third decision. Starting there is how a bench ends up with 10 mm plate on a frame that flexes — the plate stays flat, the bench does not.
02Span, deflection and the fourth power
Deflection under a distributed load scales with the fourth power of span. That single fact explains most of the surprises: doubling the distance between legs makes the same plate bend sixteen times as far.
| Plate | 800 mm | 1200 mm | 1800 mm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 mm | 0.5 mm | 1.9 mm | 6.2 mm |
| 8 mm | 0.2 mm | 0.8 mm | 2.7 mm |
| 10 mm | 0.1 mm | 0.4 mm | 1.4 mm |
Simply supported strip, 200 GPa. Read it as shape, not as a design calculation. Practical thresholds: below 1 mm nothing is noticed, 2 mm starts to feel soft under a hand, and past 4 mm anything liquid on the bench finds the middle.
The cheap fix is a mid-span brace or an undershelf welded to the legs, not a heavier plate. An undershelf done properly turns the frame into a box, and a box is many times stiffer than two legs and a top.
03304 or 316L for a bench
Workshop benches are 304 unless something specific says otherwise. Laboratory benches are the opposite: 316L is the default because the failure mode is chloride pitting from spills and cleaning agents, and pitting is invisible until it is a hole.
| Environment | Grade | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Dry assembly, packaging | 304 | No chlorides, no need for molybdenum |
| Wash-down food areas | 304 | Adequate; keep sanitiser contact short |
| Brine, dairy, seafood | 316L | Chloride pitting resistance |
| Laboratory, general chemical | 316L | Wider resistance, easier to validate |
| Laboratory, high chloride | 316L | 304 will pit at scratches |
| Coastal workshop | 316L | Salt air plus condensation |
The PREN arithmetic that separates them is %Cr + 3.3×%Mo + 16×%N: roughly 19 for 304 and 24 for 316L. On a bench, that difference shows up as whether a scratch becomes a stain or a pit.
04The details that decide whether it stays cleanable
A bench in a regulated environment is inspected at the joints, not on the surface. These are the four details worth specifying explicitly.
- Leg-to-top fixing. Through-bolted from below with the thread sealed, or a welded leg. Bolts through the working surface are a write-up in any food or lab audit.
- Undershelf. Flat or with a 20 mm upstand. A flat shelf collects; an upstand shelf holds a spill.
- Feet. Adjustable feet with a sealed thread, or castors rated for the loaded weight — not the empty weight, which is what most castor specs quote.
- Corners and upstands. Radiused internal corners, not welded right angles.
We hold ±0.05 mm on a machined edge on a bench in exactly the same way as on a kitchen top, and for the same reason — it is the only feature that can be measured and repeated. On a bench the edge that matters is usually the front one, because that is the one somebody leans on with a tool in their hand.
Give us a load in kilograms and a span in millimetres, and the frame comes back sized to it with the number written on the drawing — rather than a bench built to a catalogue size and hoped over.
05What to send for a bench quote
Length, depth, finished height, load, environment, and whether the frame is in scope or you are supplying it. If there is equipment going on the bench — a press, a centrifuge, a machine vice — say so and give its mass and footprint: point loads are what punch through plate, not distributed ones.
Our lead time on a bench is 15 working days from a confirmed drawing, with the frame and the top on the same schedule so nothing arrives first. Packing is on-edge racks with the edges protected, because a bench that has been dropped on a corner is a bench that no longer sits flat. We ship FOB Foshan or CIF to your port, and we will tell you which of the two is cheaper for your volume rather than assuming.
Send a drawing · Commercial kitchen countertops · Technical data