A Trusted Partner for Stainless Steel Tubular Frames
Baillie Fabricating and Welding is a full-service metal fabrication company specializing in fabricating stainless steel tubular frames.
Keep reading for an in-depth look at how our shop approaches the stainless steel tubular frame fabrication process, including applications, preparation, cutting, welding, and polishing.
Applications and Preparation
Baillie Fab fabricates stainless steel tubular frames for several industries, including food packaging, pharmaceuticals, and commercial restaurants.
Food packaging equipment usually consists of pick-and-place robots and conveyors in a production line. These frames must be washable to get rid of food and bacteria. Pharmaceutical equipment has the same requirements with an extra consideration. Flat surfaces must be avoided to prevent bacteria from collecting. Commercial restaurant equipment involves custom shelving units that can be mounted to the wall or sit on the floor to store products.
Customers who bring stainless steel tubular frame projects to our metal fabrication company usually have specifications such as square or rectangular tube, wall thickness, finish type, and weld type. Our team needs to know these requirements from the start because they impact the material layout, weld planning, and finishing process. We also use these stipulations to get you the most accurate quote.
Our team typically buys pre-grained tubing in standard industry sizes to fabricate stainless steel tubular frames. Next, we cut the tubes to the desired length and weld the assemblies. Then, we repair any scratches from the fabrication process with re-polishing. In cases where customers want to use a C-channel (three sides instead of four), we’ll laser cut and form the part instead of buying stock material. The frames we fabricate range from 2’ squares to 36’ conveyors.
Cutting and Welding
We employ two types of cutting for stainless steel tubular frames. Laser tube cutting is the most efficient for a high-volume project. We outsource that capability to trusted partners to conserve in-house labor and ensure consistent cuts. For lower volume work, we saw-cut the tubes in our shop.
If a customer wants a unique configuration, we can draw it up and send it out for laser tube cutting. However, that special request will likely result in a four- to five-week lead time. If a project has drilled and tapped holes, we’ll take care of that element between cutting and welding.
Baillie Fab is dedicated to creating clean welding joints. We use a cold saw to cut tubing precisely and configure the perfect joint. If there are gaps during welding, the material warps, which creates more gaps and requires more welding. Cold sawing minimizes this extra work.
Customers can choose between miter or square butt joints. Our team may recommend one or the other based on difficulty, cost, and aesthetics. Miter joints—made by cutting parts at 45-degree angles—are more expensive than square butt joints, which leave open tops that you can cap.
Sometimes, we prefer a miter joint because it saves time and effort in the long run. A miter joint requires less welding than a square butt joint. The more welding you do, the more susceptible the part is to warping. We see this most often with joints in the middle of a tube or in joining (2) tubes together to get the right length required by the customer. If a customer doesn’t want any warpage, we may have to use heat to straighten the part and re-polish it. These added steps can reduce the cost-effectiveness of choosing a square butt joint in the first place.
Polishing
Polishing can be one of the most labor-intensive aspects of fabricating a stainless steel tubular frame. Achieving the right finish can take twice the effort of building the frame, depending on what the customer wants.
The most common finish is a #4 linear grain. Some customers want to leave the welds as-is and just ask for a shine-up. In that case, we use an acid wash to remove weld staining, leaving a clean appearance. Other customers want a complete, smooth finish with linear grains coming in on their miter joints at a straight angle. For example, pharmaceutical customers often ask for a mirror finish because weld ripples can trap bacteria.
The more polishing we do, the more the project will cost. Sharing your design information with our team in the beginning helps us determine where we may be able to save you money. For example, if you have joints in the back of a part that no one will see, they don’t need to be polished. If you have joints that are out front and viewed daily, they should be polished.
Your Stainless Steel Tubular Frame Partner
Baillie Fab has significant experience fabricating stainless steel tubular frames, particularly for the food packaging industry. Our team has completed enough projects to know how to achieve ideal joint configurations and apply the perfect amount of polishing to satisfy customer needs.
Other shops don’t have these specialized capabilities because they don’t want to invest in the equipment and the training. However, our team has put money into cold saws and polishing equipment to become a full-service metal fabrication company. Contact us or request a quote today for our sheet metal fabrication services.
