How are basin taps and showerheads produced?
Part One, Casting
Faucet production process:
Copper ingot → Dissolve → Casting (low-end ones are cast by sand casting, high-quality faucets are cast by gravity) → Post-cast cleaning → Casting inspection → Mechanical processing → Tolerance inspection → Grinding → Surface inspection → Electroplating → Electroplating inspection → Assembly → Pressure test → Finished product inspection→packaging→factory delivery.
Casting: Low-end faucets are cast by sand casting, high-quality faucets are cast by gravity. The relatively new technology is die-casting. One-time grinding and molding are similar to the current zinc alloy die-casting process.
Quality control: The quality of the production process before the finished product is controlled by quality control. The quality assurance department conducts random inspections from later costs to packaging, mainly to check the packaging and placement of the products.
The difference between high-quality and inferior faucet casting processes
1. Differences in casting processes
Most of the casting processes for some mid-range products are sand casting. This is what people usually call “sand foundry”. Products produced by this process have a loose internal structure of the valve body metal, which can easily form internal defects such as “trachoma” and “pores”. It may not be visible from the outside. But after a period of use, water leakage, loose sealing, or even larger defects will occur. Resulting in low product life. It is understood that the service life of low-end faucets is only a few months, and problems will occur when it is as long as about a year.
High-end products and mid-range products produced by powerful companies use gravity casting. It uses a gravity casting machine and casts it with a steel mold. This process method is already relatively common abroad. The products produced by this process have a dense internal structure of the valve body metal. Excellent quality and long life. For the same valve body, the products produced by the two processes have different weights and different material consumption. The weight difference between the gravity cast valve body and the sand mold cast valve body is generally about 1/4. Therefore, the same products have different prices.