What's new
What's new

Chinesium steel

Here in the USA, we see virtually zero Chinese stainless. I use a fair amount of stainless. It comes from France, Russia, sometimes Korea, as well as the majority of it coming from the USA and Canada.
I have been lucky enough to never have gotten any stainless, in about 30 years of using a couple tons or more a year, anywhere near that bad.

In 2019, for example, we imported about ten times as much stainless from the
EU (France, Germany, and Belgium, mostly) as from China.
 
I have gotten stainless exhaust tubing from China... what I think they meant to say was poorly chrome plated steel but either way what I got was not stainless steel.
 
I have some 303 on the rack that came from India via China.

You'll be cutting along just fine, then this big black smudge appears. Take another pass, it's gone. You never know when it's gonna show up, but it seems to be all through these bars.

Don't know what it is- some contaminant but who knows what...
 
I had issues with 303 and 304 lately. I did not get certs, so I have no idea where it came from, but since I bought it from McMaster I figured it was either domestic or European and of good quality. The 304 ate tooling unless I dropped the RPMs way down and lowered the feed rate from the last time I ran the job. Trying to run at the same speed as last time was making brown parts with a mottled finish. Ran some 303 yesterday that was getting random tearing on some parts, till I slowed it down. These parts were all small, made from 3/16" and 1/4". Fortunately the jobs were quantities of 6, 12, and 30 pieces, so turning 2 min 30 second parts into 5 minute ones didn't create a big problem.
 
I had issues with 303 and 304 lately. I did not get certs, so I have no idea where it came from, but since I bought it from McMaster I figured it was either domestic or European and of good quality. The 304 ate tooling unless I dropped the RPMs way down and lowered the feed rate from the last time I ran the job. Trying to run at the same speed as last time was making brown parts with a mottled finish. Ran some 303 yesterday that was getting random tearing on some parts, till I slowed it down. These parts were all small, made from 3/16" and 1/4". Fortunately the jobs were quantities of 6, 12, and 30 pieces, so turning 2 min 30 second parts into 5 minute ones didn't create a big problem.

I had a batch of 316 come in from a different supplier and I could not get it to tap the same way it did previously. Nothing would get it to run the same way as the last 10k parts I made.

I was thinking it may be the batch of material. After having the rep from Schmolz Bickenbach (or whatever) stop in he told me they are the 2nd biggest SS mill in the world. Mostly German and American. Prices change too much so always check in weekly as nickel prices fluctuate a lot and prices can change week to week.

I now do not shop around for stainless. I always use the same supplier and never let customers supply material. Its my policy to have customers "pay" for material as opposed to "supplying" it themselves.

Find a good SS supplier and stick with it and pay what they charge you. It will be better for you in the long run.
 
I now do not shop around for stainless. I always use the same supplier and never let customers supply material. Its my policy to have customers "pay" for material as opposed to "supplying" it themselves.

Find a good SS supplier and stick with it and pay what they charge you. It will be better for you in the long run.

I just reran one of the jobs that was a struggle with having to run 303 at slow speeds. It ran like a dream. I got
certs, the material came from North American Stainless in Kentucky. It came from Online Metals. For the small diameter stuff I will just call and ask Online where the stuff on their shelves was from before ordering from now on. I don't really shop for stainless, I usually just add it to whatever small stuff or plastic I am buying online. The parts I run from stainless are a very small fraction of what I make. I probably only buy a couple 100 pounds a year if that. Just did a 30 piece 303 order, I used exactly a pound of material. It is all mostly small stuff.
 
Request a quote on their website or (gasp!) call 'em up. Not sure this is a possibility where you are, but I've often gotten material from our local centerless grinding shop, as they order it in quantity.
 
Chinesium stainless steel cutlery goes a dull colour after use instead of staying shiny.
 
Interesting that North American Stainless Steel, in Kentucky, is actually Acerinox, from Spain. They have a dozen or so plants all over the world, from South Africa to Turkey and Malaysia.
 
China has cornered a lot of the Stainless pipe market, and has for quite a few years now.
Most of the stainless round bar I get is either from USA or India, once in a while Italy or Spain, and some sizes China. I try to avoid everything China.
I've never seen a piece of stainless made in Canada yet. I'm gonna guess if someone makes some, they must be shipping it elsewhere, or its a type/size I never use.

I tried before to get some Carpenter, and also some other fancier Euro stuff, and it turned into such a nightmare trying to buy from them and find who to give money to I just said screw it.
 
It's pretty bad when the people I used to deal with in China, they would bring in Stainless, 13Cr primarily, from either Korea or Japan. They would not buy SS from their own country to make parts for us. That's how bad it is. Ken
 
I am seeing more and more stainless structural from overseas. Easiest way to tell is the weld seams on tubing. I'm use to good quality flat seams where Chinese crap has a 1/4" of extra material hanging inside and it bows so bad that 2" sq tube measures 2 3/32 in the middle.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
I don't think you folks will have to worry about crap material from China anymore if Trump has his way. The driver for all this China trade has been and still is price. Greed has over ridden quality from a marketing position. Soon the import tariffs from China will negate all that. Your material cost will increase of course, but it will be the same for everybody.
 








 
Back
Top