Faucet production process consists of four parts,casting,mechanical
processing,surface treatment,and assembly.
1. Casting process
a. Product design
b. Mould design and manufacturing
c. Mould tidy up
d. Mix sand
e. Sand core shooter
f. Low pressure die casting machine
g. Short blasting cleaning out the sand core
h. Sawing cutting
Casting starts from brass bars and cores
The most important ingredient in faucet production is brass, from
which the faucet body is made by means of casting. The core is a
central part of the production process, as it forms water channels
in the faucet body during casting. A solid core is made from fine
sand and a hardening agent by heating in a core box.
The core is made from fine sand and it forms the waterways for the
faucet body during casting
During casting, the shell mould is dipped into a water and graphite
solution. The caster (the person responsible for casting) places
the cores inside the mould and removes any loose sand from the
shell mould using compressed air.
The cores are placed inside the mould.
The mould is sealed and placed in the blazing hot casting chamber
of the casting furnace. Three tons of molten brass flow from the
casting furnace into shell moulds. The core maintains waterways
open inside the mould, to which technical components are installed
and through which water flows through the faucet.
Molten brass flows into the shell moulds.
After brief cooling, the caster uses tongs to move the cast to cool
down. Next, the core is removed from inside the faucet body by
whirling it in a mill equipped with metal balls.
Faucets are sawn and ground to their final shape
Cooled faucet bodies delivered from the foundry are separated from
each other by sawing, and any parts that were necessary during
casting but not included in complete faucets are removed.
2.Machining
Get the brass casting after annealing, using CNC
numerically-controlled machine tool and other machine tool to
process the brass casting,to make it’s dimensional,accuracy,and
position meet drawing requirements.
Proceed polish,take outrags,rough surface and potholes on
surface,make the product surface have no obvious sand holes and
hole defect after completion of machining. Grinding polishing
processing, after polishing,use high-speed rotating wheel to
grinding workpiece surfaces, make it smooth and bright, increase
the brightness of product surface.
3.Surface treatment.
Surface treatment technology mainly include PVD (Physical Vapor
Deposition), ORB (Oil Rubber Bronze),electroplating plating etc.,
most widely used is electrochromism.Electroplate can enhance
corrosion resistance of faucet, increasing hardness, prevent
abrasion, surface beauty. Most common is hexavalent chromium
electroplating,now green trivalent chromium plating is rising.
Electroplating can be divided into three layers,first layer acid
copper plating,second nickel plating and three chrome plated.
International standard of faucet electroplating thickness is 8
microns, the best can reach 12 micron.
Plating surface treatment can be used 24 hours acetic acid salt
spray test to judge quality, and can use layer thickness meter to
authenticate each metal coating thickness.Usually if coating
thickness can reach standard,salt spray test can pass.
Electroplating is big pollution and big energy consumption,general
faucet factory have to send faucets to professional electroplating
factory to plating, thereby increasing production time and
difficulty of control.
4.Accessories process
For the shaft,screw nut,screw etc., which used for faucets, need to
forge and press from copper bar into copper pieces, and then
Processing thread according to the need by machining
technician,commonly known as tapping.
5.Assembly
After faucet castings pass the test after plating, then into the
assembly process. Assembly is the processing that contect faucet
components according to certain order and technology,become a
complete set of faucet products, and realize the function of
product design process reliably.
