Open-Die Forgings & Seamless Rolled Rings Melted, forged, heat-treated and machined in one works. 60 t heats, a 6,300 t press and a 6 m ring mill.

It melts its own. The works runs a 25 t electric arc furnace with 25 t and 50 t ladle furnaces and 30 t and 60 t vacuum oxygen decarburisation units for carbon, alloy, stainless and duplex grades, plus 2 t, 8 t and 25 t medium-frequency induction furnaces. For clean and superalloy grades there is 3 t vacuum induction melting, 6 t vacuum arc remelting and 3 t and 6 t protective-atmosphere electroslag remelting, so VIM + VAR double-melt routes are available without subcontracting. Maximum heat size is 60 tonnes.

This matters on two counts. The chemistry can be aimed at the forging it will become rather than accepted as delivered, and the certificate traces a part back to its melt number instead of stopping at a purchased billet certificate, which is what most forging shops in China can offer.

Seamless rings roll up to 6,000 mm outside diameter on the 6 m radial-axial mill, with 3 m and 1 m mills for smaller sizes. The heaviest single forging is 30 tonnes, worked on 6,300 t, 4,000 t and 2,000 t hydraulic presses and backed by 5 t, 3 t, 2 t, 1 t and 750 kg hammers. Maximum heat size in the melt shop is 60 tonnes.

Downstream sets the practical limits: heat-treatment furnaces take work up to 8,000 × 2,000 × 2,000 mm, two 15 m well-type furnaces allow long shafts to be quenched vertically, vertical lathes machine to Ø5,000 mm swing, horizontal lathes to 14 m between centres, and the deep-hole drilling machine bores Ø1,600 × 10,000 mm.

Yes, and the melting route is in-house. The company is establishing a dedicated super alloy department around the 6 t protective-atmosphere electroslag furnace, the 3 t vacuum induction furnace and the 6 t vacuum arc remelting furnace. Three high-temperature car-bottom furnaces cover the solution treatments these alloys need.

Most Chinese forging shops have to import billet for these grades, which drives both cost and lead time. Send the grade, the specification and the melt route required (single, double or triple melt) with your enquiry.

Open-die forging shapes heated metal between flat or simply contoured dies that do not enclose the workpiece, so the material is worked progressively rather than squeezed into a cavity. Because no closed die has to be cut, it is the economical route for one-offs, small batches and parts too large for a die press.

Metallurgically, the deformation closes internal porosity and aligns the grain flow with the part's shape, which gives higher toughness and fatigue strength than a casting of the same alloy. Closed-die forging becomes cheaper only at high volumes, where the die cost is spread across many identical parts.

Carbon steel, low-alloy and quenched-and-tempered alloy steel, austenitic and martensitic stainless steel, duplex and super-duplex stainless steel, precipitation-hardening stainless steel, hot-work and cold-work tool and die steel, and nickel-based alloys and superalloys including Inconel, Incoloy, Monel, Hastelloy, Nimonic and Waspaloy.

Frequently requested grades include ASTM A182 F11, F22, F91, F304L, F316L, F51, F53 and F55; ASTM A350 LF2; ASTM A694 F52 to F70; AISI 4140, 4340 and 8620; 42CrMo4 and 34CrNiMo6; and Inconel 625, Inconel 718, Incoloy 825 and Monel 400. The full list is in the grade index.

CCS (China Classification Society), BV (Bureau Veritas), DNV, LR (Lloyd's Register) and NK (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai / ClassNK).

Testing runs in an on-site laboratory: optical emission spectrometry, infrared carbon and sulphur analysis, tensile testing on 600 kN and 300 kN machines, Charpy V-notch impact to −60 °C, ultrasonic and magnetic particle inspection, and metallography. Tests outside that scope, namely ASTM A262, G28, G48, A923 and impact below −60 °C, are placed with an accredited third-party laboratory.

EN 10204 3.1 mill test certificates are supplied as standard. EN 10204 3.2 certificates witnessed by a classification society or a third-party inspection body such as SGS or TÜV are available on request.

10 kg. There is no minimum piece count, because the limit is set by weight rather than quantity. A single small part is quotable, and so is a one-off large ring. This is unusual for a works of this size, since plants running a 6,300 t press often refuse anything under a tonne.

In practice, very small parts are grouped into a batch to share furnace and setup time, which is why quantity still affects the unit price even though it does not affect whether the job can be taken.

20 to 60 days from order confirmation, depending on the material route.

Carbon steel, alloy steel and standard stainless grades sit at the lower end: the steel is melted in the electric arc furnace, refined and forged without an intermediate remelting step. Nickel alloys, superalloys and any grade requiring vacuum arc or electroslag remelting sit at the upper end, because the remelting cycle, the slower forging schedule and the longer solution-treatment times all add days.

Testing requirements also move the date. Third-party witnessed inspection to EN 10204 3.2, or corrosion testing placed with an outside laboratory, needs scheduling. Flag both at enquiry stage so they are built into the quoted date rather than added to it.

Both. Forgings can be supplied as-forged with machining allowance, rough-machined to a proof-machined condition suitable for ultrasonic testing, or finish-machined to drawing. Heat treatment, machining, non-destructive testing and mechanical testing are all carried out in-house before shipment.

The plant is at No.1 Chengxiqiao Road, Zhouzhuang Town, Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, China. Jiangyin sits between Shanghai and Nanjing on the south bank of the Yangtze. Wuxi Shuofang International Airport is 30 km away; Shanghai’s airports are 160 km.

Customer audits and third-party inspections are welcome. Email sales@steelforgepieces.com or call +86 189 2135 9659 to arrange a visit.

Email sales@steelforgepieces.com with the material grade, the dimensions or a drawing, the quantity, the delivery condition, the testing and certification requirements, and the destination. The six-item checklist in section 08 covers everything needed for a firm price.