Castle Metals Processing and Services
A. M. Castle was the first to offer a wide range of processing services. Today, few suppliers can match our attention to detail or
provide the bundling services needed to function as a one-stop resource for customers.
H-A Industries is our state-of-the-art bar processing facility, which has thermal treating, bar turning, and centerless grinding
capabilities, supplies unequalled quality and value, to either commercial or customer specific properties. In addition to the special
capabilities of H-A, we offer a comprehensive range of specialty, value-added, processing services for plate, sheet, tubing, and bar
products from many other locations in our North American network. These include; bar cutting, plate burning and sawing, grinding,
milling, turning, thermal treatment, and material testing.
Product Literature (PDF)
For more detailed information on our processes, select see the following PDF brochure:
Processing Data Sheet
Cutting
Castle’s advanced cutting processes include:
Cutting Processes
- Abrasive Water-Jet
- A cutting method that uses a jet of pressurized water containing abrasive powder for cutting steel and other dense materials.
- Aluminum Contour Saw
- Sawing to a layout line of regular radius or irregular contour. The term is often used to describe any
band machining operation more complicated than a simple straight line cut.
- Beveling
- Refers to pipe; the end preparation for field welding of the joint.
- Deburring
- A method whereby the raw slit edge of metal is removed by rolling or filing.
- Lathe Cutting
- A process that cuts tubular and bar products to close tolerances on turning machines and can impart chamfers and
deburring to both ends of the parts.
- Precision Saw Cutting
- The metalworking process used to cut starting ingot or billet stock to length in preparation for the forging process
and also to trim forged parts to size.
- Shearing
- A type of cutting operation in which the metal object is cut by means of a moving blade and fixed edge or by a pair
of moving blades that may be either flat or curved.
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Thermal Treatment
Castle’s roster of thermal treatment processes include:
Thermal Treatment Processes
- Anneal
- The process of heating and then cooling metal to improve its formability, machinability, and to make its surface more durable.
- Induction Hardening
- A widely used process for the surface hardening of steel, the components are heated by means of an alternating
magnetic field to a temperature within or above the transformation range followed by immediate quenching.
- Normalize
- A heat treatment applied to steel which involves heating above the critical range followed by cooling in still air.
It is performed to relieve internal stress, refine the grain size and improve the mechanical properties.
- Quench/Temper
- Quenching:
Rapid cooling from a high temperature by immersion in a liquid bath of oil or water.
- Tempering:
A heat treatment applied to ferrous products after hardening. It consists of heating the steel to some temperature below
the transformation range and holding for a suitable time at the temperature, followed by cooling at a suitable rate.
The object of tempering is to decrease hardness and increase toughness to produce the desired combination of mechanical
properties.
- Stress Relieve
- The process of heating to a suitable temperature, holding long enough to reduce residual stresses and then cooling
slowly enough to minimize the development of new residual stresses.
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Grinding
Castle undertakes the following grinding processes:
Grinding Processes
- Centerless Grinding
- A type of grinding in which cylindrical parts are not held between centers but are supported on a work rest blade and rotated.
- Double-Disc Grinding
- Double Disc Grinding is the grinding of two surfaces at the same time in one machine. The two abrasive discs are
opposed and the work pieces are fed between the discs to grind parallel surfaces simultaneously.
- Milling
- A machining operation that uses a multi-point horizontal or vertical cutter to remove metal from the surface of a work piece.
- Surface Grinding
- Surface Grinding is used to produce high-quality flat surfaces on work pieces. Peripheral surface grinders with
horizontal spindles use the periphery of the grinding wheel to impart a flat surface to the work piece.
- OD Turning
- A metal removal process (outside the diameter) that alters a bar or tube’s size and finish.
- Turn & Polishing
- Turning:
A method for removing the surface from a circular piece by bringing the cutting edge of a tool against it while the
piece is rotated.
- Polishing:
(1) Smoothing metal surfaces, often to a high luster, by rubbing the surface with a fine abrasive, usually contained
in a cloth or other soft lap. Results in microscopic flow of some surface metal together with actual removal of a
small amount of surface metal. (2) Removal of material by the action of abrasive grains carried to the work by a
flexible support, generally either a wheel or a coated abrasive belt. (3) A mechanical, chemical, or electrolytic
process or combination thereof used to prepare a smooth, reflective surface suitable for micro-structural
examination that is free of artifacts or damage introduced during prior sectioning or grinding.
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Testing
Castle’s testing processes include the following:
Testing Processes
- Hardness
- A test used to determine the relative resistance to indentation or displacement of metals by pressure, or by resistance to
abrasion. Common methods of testing include Brinell, Rockwell, and Vickers tests.
- Brinell:
A common standard method of measuring the hardness of certain metals. The smooth surface of the metal is subjected to indentation
by a hardened steel ball under pressure or load. The diameter of the resultant indentation, in the metal surface, is measured by a
special microscope and the Brinell hardness value read from a chart or calculated formula.
- Rockwell:
A method for testing the hardness of metals by determining the depth of penetration of a steel ball or a diamond sphero-conical
indenter. The value is read from a dial and is an arbitrary number related to the depth of penetration.
(http://metals.about.com/library/bldef-Rockwell-Hardness-Testing.htm)
- Eddy Current Tester
- The ROTOMAC 550 CUSTOM rotary probe eddy current tester at Castle’s HA Industries provides for detection of surface
defects such as cracks or seams in bar stock. The rotating multiple test probes at speeds up to 6000 RPM around the bar.
The material under test moves longitudinally through rotating probes creating a helical search pattern. As the probe passes
over a defect, variations in the induced eddy-current pattern are produced, detected and indicated.
- Optical Emission Spectrometer (OES)
- The ARL - OES at Castle’s HA Industries provides material analysis for carbon, alloy and stainless steels. The OES is
able to perform rapid simultaneous analysis of up to 18 elements. The high energy spark emits a spectrum of radiation with
wavelengths converted to the elemental composition.
- Ultrasonic
- A method of nondestructive testing of solid metal for internal flaws utilizing high frequency sound waves.
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Additional Services
Castle’s additional processing services include:
Additional Services
- Bar Coding
- A method of encoding data on products for fast and accurate electronic readability, which can be read by electronic
readers, and used to facilitate timely and accurate input of data to a computer.
- Chamfering
- The process in which a flat surface is made by cutting off the edge or corner metal or other material.
- Chrome Plating
- A complex process used for both cosmetic and functional purposes for long wear life for component or production parts
wherein a thin plate of chromium deposited by electrolysis on a corrodible metal, giving a bright, metallic surface which is
highly resistant to tarnish. It provides lubricity and a surface hardness and is crack-free and both corrosion and heat resistant.
- Demagnetizing
- A procedure that reduces the magnetic flux to virtual zero by applying a reverse magnetizing field.
- EDI ANSI X12
- Following the ANSI X12 standards that define the structure, format, and content of business transactions, Castle uses
EDI ANSI X12 to transmit business transactions such as such as orders, confirmations and invoices, from one company's
computer to another company's computer. Transmission is achieved through an electronic communication network that uses
translation software to convert transactions from a company's internal format to a standard EDI format.
- Flattening
- The process in which a series of staggered rolls of small diameter is used to remove bow and waves from sheet. While
passing through the roll, the sheet is bent back and forth slightly and is delivered approximately flat.
- Forming/Drilling/Machining
- Forming:
The process in which a machine press shapes a metal work piece by applying pressure on it.
- Drilling:
The type of machining used when smaller holes are needed and a closer ole diameter tolerance is preferred or required.
However, it is the slowest of the drilling operations and hole drift is typically greater than .001 per inch of length drilled.
- Machining:
The process to remove excess or unwanted stock by the use of machine tools for rough or finish turning, boring, drilling,
or milling.
- Heat Stamping
- A metal stamping process in which the work piece is heated.
- Line Marking
- The process of placing a distinct sign or image upon or within an object or material for identification or other purposes.
- Packaging
- The process in which we provide protective packaging material used to protect products throughout the entire transportation
and distribution environment.
- Shot Blasting
- Cleaning surface of metal by air blast, using metal as a result of solidification shrinkage and the progressive freezing of
metal towards the center.
- Skiving and burnishing
- A method of removing material from the inside diameter of a tube using a cutting tool moving into the ID followed by a
roller burnisher to greatly improve the surface finish in one pass.
- Straightening
- Metal forming in which a bend is removed from a piece of metal by applying a force. Metal straightening is the opposite
of metal bending.
- Trepanning/Boring/Honing
- Trepanning:
A type of machining performed on solid material whereas, a hole is cored through the part. The end product is normally a
heavy-wall tube or "hollow bar." Trepanning is a "coring" operation as opposed to other methods of producing a hole. The
cutting tool cuts out a channel along the circumference of the hole, allowing the inner portion of the hole to remain intact.
This solid portion is extracted after the hole is completed.
- Boring:
A process that removes stock metal from the inside diameter which provides good, comprehensive geometry covering ovality,
roundness and straightness.
- Honing:
A process using abrasive polishing stones, this operation removes small amounts of materials to achieve precise Ids and
improve finishes. Normal stock removal is .006" to as much .125" depending on the bore size of the tube. Other machining
processes precede honing when larger amounts of materials need to be removed.
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Quality Certificates
Castle Metals Quality Certifications