Chemical and Food Processing
Seals, Filters and Stainless Parts
Hydroforce presses and diamond grinds WC-Ni carbide seal rings and valve seats, sinters porous metal filter elements, machines shafts, sleeves and valve stems in stainless steel, and molds MIM drive parts for process pumps, agitators and mixers, valves, filtration skids, dosing pumps and food processing machinery.
Why Wetted Surfaces Decide Parts for Chemical and Food Processing
The seal faces of a process pump run in the fluid the pump moves, and in a chemical line that fluid can be an acid or a caustic cleaning agent. In a standard carbide grade the cobalt binder is attacked at the surface first, and the carbide grains lose their support. For seal rings, mechanical seal faces, valve seats and valve cores in this service we press and sinter grades with a nickel binder, which our grade table lists for the chemical industry and food processing.
A filter element in a process skid has to keep its pores open through years of backwash and chemical cleaning. We sinter these elements from bronze, 316L stainless, nickel alloys and titanium powder, and set each step of the route to hold an open pore network of a target size. A MIM gear for a dosing drive is sintered on the same line until most of the pore space is closed and the part reaches 95 to 99 % of theoretical density. We make and test both in-house.
Agitators and extruders stand on a floor that is washed down at the end of every shift. The reducer on such a machine gets wet at every wash-down, so we cut its gearing in stainless steel or bronze. We use the same two materials for gearing on marine deck machinery. Shafts, shaft sleeves, valve stems and pump heads for these machines are machined in stainless steel.
Some food plants tip bins and bowls into their mixers and grinders with hydraulic lifters, and press products on hydraulic presses. A cylinder in that area is cleaned together with the machine around it, so we make the rod in 1.4404 / AISI 316L or give a light-duty rod a TiN layer.
Every part we make has its material named in our documents. It ships with a material certificate and a dimensional report to the drawing, for a single prototype or a production series.
By Type of Equipment
Built for Chemical and Food Processing Equipment
Process pumps with mechanical seals
WC-Ni seal rings and mechanical seal faces, carbide plain bearing bushes, plunger inserts for positive-displacement pumps, and machined shafts, shaft sleeves and casing fits in 1.4404/316.
Agitators and mixers
WC-Ni faces for the shaft seal, machined stainless shafts, bushings and flanges, reducer gearing in stainless steel or bronze for wash-down positions, and a die-cast housing for the drive control box.
Valves for chemical and food process lines
WC-Ni valve seats and valve cores, valve stems and bodies machined in 1.4404/316, and small MIM parts for the pneumatic actuator.
Filtration and separation skids
sintered porous metal cups, candles and cylinders in 316L, bronze, nickel or titanium with sanitary clamp flanges or welded end caps, and machined stainless flanges and fittings for the housing.
Dosing and metering pumps
WC-Ni plunger inserts and seal rings, pump heads and plunger rods machined in 1.4404/316, and MIM gears and drive parts in 316L and 17-4 PH.
Food processing machinery (extruders, mixers, fillers)
machined screw shafts, bushings and flanges in stainless steel, stainless or bronze reducer gearing, miniature MIM gears for filler dosing drives, and hydraulic cylinders for bin and bowl lifting-tipping units and presses.
What We Make for Process Equipment Builders
Six Technologies for Process Equipment Builders
Hydraulic Cylinders
In this trade cylinders appear on bin and bowl lifting-tipping units and on presses in food plants. Process pumps and agitators run on electric motors. Our range covers bores from 20 to 1000 mm and working pressure up to 500 bar. For a rod that is washed down with the machine we use 1.4404 / AISI 316L stainless, or a TiN layer of 2–5 μm on a light-duty rod, and grind the rod to Ra ≤ 0.1 μm where seal life matters.
Typical parts
- Lifting-tipping cylinders for bin and bowl tippers
- Press cylinders for food processing presses
- Rods in 1.4404 or with a TiN layer for wash-down areas
- Replacement cylinders to the dimensions of an existing unit
Hydraulic Motors and Pumps
Motors and pumps have a small place here as well. A bin tipper or a press is driven by a hydraulic power unit, and that unit needs a pump. Our range covers gear, planetary, axial-piston and radial-piston types from 0.25 to 8000 cc/rev, with working pressure up to 450 bar.
Typical applications
- Gear pumps for the power unit of a lifting-tipping unit
- Pumps for hydraulic presses in food plants
- Replacement motors and pumps for equipment already in service
- SAE and DIN mounting flanges for a drop-in replacement
Machining and Gears
We turn and mill pump shafts, shaft sleeves and the seal and bearing seats of cast pump casings, and also valve stems, pump heads, agitator shafts and extruder screw shafts. We work in stainless steels 1.4301/304 and 1.4404/316, and in bronze and titanium where the drawing specifies it. Our Haas CNC milling centres (1270 x 660 x 635 mm work envelope) and DMG MORI turning machines (Ø500 mm, 1000 mm length) hold IT6-IT7 fits, with geometric control to ISO 2768-fH, ISO 286 and ISO 1101, and our Schiess lathes take shafts up to 16 m long. Reducer gearing for wet and wash-down positions is cut in stainless steel or bronze to ISO 1328.
Typical parts
- Pump shafts, shaft sleeves and machined fits of cast casings
- Valve stems, bodies and pump heads in 1.4404/316
- Agitator shafts, flanges and bushings in stainless steel
- Stainless and bronze gears for reducers in wash-down positions
Aluminium Die Casting
In this trade die-cast aluminium stays away from the process fluid and the product. It is used for drive housings and control enclosures on the machine frame. We cast in AlSi10Mg, AlSi12 and AlSi9Cu3 (EN AC-43400, EN AC-44300, EN AC-46000), with wall thickness from 1.5 mm and as-cast tolerance ±0.1-0.3 mm, tightened to H7/h7 on machined fits. After casting, a housing can be powder coated or anodised.
Typical applications
- Drive housings for agitators and mixers
- Control box enclosures on the frame of food processing machines
- Covers and brackets outside the product zone
- Housings powder coated or anodised after casting
Powder Metallurgy and MIM
Sintered porous metal filters are a product line of their own. The range covers filter discs, cups, cylinders, candles and spargers, sintered from bronze, 316/316L stainless (1.4401/1.4404), nickel alloys and titanium, with a micron rating from about 0.2 to 100 μm and 30 to 50 % open porosity, up to about 90 % in metal-fibre media. Each element is tested for permeability to ISO 4022 and bubble point to ISO 4003. After backwashing or chemical cleaning, the element goes back into the housing. In the same furnaces we sinter dense MIM parts in 316L and 17-4 PH, with walls down to 0.3 mm and a standard tolerance of ±0.02 mm.
Typical applications
- Filter cups, candles and cylinders with sanitary clamp flanges or welded end caps
- Spargers for gas dispersion in fermentation and aeration
- Polymer-melt filter elements for extrusion lines
- MIM gears and drive parts for dosing pumps in 316L and 17-4 PH
Cemented Carbides
Carbide leads on the wetted wear and sealing surfaces of pumps, agitators and valves. For aggressive fluids we press and sinter WC-Ni grades with 9–13 % Ni binder and 1,400–1,600 HV hardness, from the ISO 513 range. Seal faces and seats are ground on diamond wheels to ±0.01 mm and Ra 0.1–0.4 μm, so the mating faces of a mechanical seal close flat.
Typical applications
- Seal rings and mechanical seal faces for process pumps and agitators
- Valve seats and valve cores for chemical and food process lines
- Plain bearing bushes for centrifugal pumps
- Plunger inserts for dosing and metering pumps
Cost Logic
Where the Budget Goes, and How We Keep the Price Down
A buyer usually compares a seal ring or a filter element with the previous batch on unit price. We spend on the checks that show whether every part in the batch will seal and fit like the first one. The rest of the order is kept standard.
| We invest in | How we keep the price down |
|---|---|
| Diamond grinding of carbide seal faces and seats to ±0.01 mm, with hardness and microstructure checks on every batch | Standard mounting types for tipper and press cylinders, where the design allows |
| Bubble-point and permeability testing of every filter element to ISO 4003 and ISO 4022 | Nickel alloy or titanium filter media, and special rod coatings, only where the process chemistry needs them |
| Precision machining of shafts, sleeves and seal seats to IT6-IT7 fits, and pressure testing of every hydraulic cylinder | One setup for a batch of identical units, and near-net pressing and MIM that removes machining |
| Full documentation: material certificate, CMM report, test records | Die and tooling cost spread over the series, sensors only where the control system uses them |
Aftermarket
Repeat Orders and Matching Parts
A pump or a valve design often stays in production for years, and seal rings and filter elements are reordered as spares long after the first delivery. A ring made today has to fit the seal head built several years earlier. For every carbide, sintered or MIM part we keep the tool drawings, the grade or powder specification and the sintering parameters on file, and a repeat order is made with the settings approved for the first article. For machined parts we keep the CNC program and the fixture, and a reordered shaft or sleeve has the same dimensions as before.
If a seal ring or a shaft sleeve has no drawing left, send us the part or its dimensions. We measure the geometry on the CMM and quote a replacement before production starts. When the tool or the program is ready and the first article is approved, we run further batches from it with no redesign, for a few spares or a full production series.
By drawing
By worn sample
Batches for a series
Seal kits by serial number
Documentation
Standards and Documentation
Our component documentation refers to these standards.
| Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
| ISO 513 | Classification of cemented carbide grades |
| EN 10204 3.1 | Material certificate with traceable test results, on request |
| ISO 4022 / ISO 4003 | Permeability and bubble-test pore size of permeable sintered metal filters |
| ISO 2768-fH / ISO 286 / ISO 1101 | General tolerances, fits, and form and position for machined parts |
| ISO 1328 | Accuracy of machined gears |
| ISO 5755 / ISO 22068 | Specification for sintered PM and MIM materials |
| ISO 6020 / ISO 6022 | Mounting dimensions for hydraulic cylinders, 160 bar and 250 bar series |
| ISO 4413 | Safety requirements for hydraulic systems and components |
| ISO 10100 | Acceptance tests for hydraulic cylinders |
Pressure equipment rules, hygienic design and food-contact material approval belong to the equipment builder or the line integrator. We supply component documentation to the drawing, including documentation packages to ISO, DIN, DNV, ABS or API requirements where a project calls for them.
Our quality system is certified to ISO 9001:2015. More on inspection stages and equipment: Quality.
Quality
Quality Control
Every order goes through three inspection stages. We check incoming material against its certificate, and where the grade matters, for example a 1.4404 bar or a MIM powder lot, we run a spectrochemical analysis. During machining we measure with Renishaw probes on the machine and on a CMM with an error under 3 μm, checked on schedule every 45 machine hours.
Carbide seal rings, valve seats and plunger inserts are tested for Rockwell hardness and checked under the microscope for grain size and binder distribution. Critical parts are also X-rayed for internal porosity. Filter elements go through a bubble-point test to ISO 4003 and a permeability test to ISO 4022, with an integrity check on welds and end fittings and a dimensional inspection to drawing. MIM parts are checked for density, hardness and dimensions on every lot. Hydraulic cylinders for tippers and presses are pressure tested at 1.5× working pressure before they ship.
More detail: Quality.
From Hydroforce
From Our Workshop
Sintered Porous Metal Filters: Engineering Porosity as the Product
Filter elements in bronze, 316L, nickel alloys and titanium, rated from about 0.2 to 100 μm and tested for bubble point and permeability. The 316L elements, some with sanitary clamp flanges, serve chemical, pharmaceutical, food and gas duty.
Read more → Hydraulic CylindersHydraulic Piston Rods: The Machining Chain That Defines Cylinder Life
Turning, hardening, plating, grinding and polishing of piston rods up to 16 m long. The rod material table lists 1.4404 / AISI 316L for food and chemical service, and TiN among the rod coatings.
Read more → MachiningGears for Industrial Reducers and Heavy-Duty Drives
Spur, helical and worm gearing cut, heat treated and measured in-house to ISO 1328. Drives that get wet during cleaning receive stainless or bronze gearing.
Read more →Procurement FAQ
FAQ
What documentation do you supply for chemical and food processing parts?
Carbide seal rings, valve seats and plunger inserts come with Rockwell hardness testing and CMM verification. Filter elements ship with a bubble-point and permeability test report and a certificate for the powder lot they were made from, EN 10204 3.1 on request. Machined shafts, sleeves and stems ship with a material certificate and a CMM dimensional report. Hygienic design validation and food-contact material approval for the finished machine stay with the equipment builder; tell us what your component record needs and we plan the package with the order.
Can you match an existing seal ring, shaft sleeve or filter element with no drawing?
Yes. Send us the part or its dimensions and we measure the geometry on the CMM before quoting a replacement or a new batch. For a filter element, tell us the fluid, the flow rate, the particle size to be removed and the operating temperature, and we propose the medium and the micron rating. Once the tool or the sintering parameters are approved on a first article, later batches are made from it with no redesign.
We build the same pump or skid in series. Can you supply it as a batch?
Yes. Once the first part has been quoted and measured against your drawing or your sample, further units run as a batch, with the same certificates and tests on every piece and one setup for the run. For pressed, sintered and MIM parts the tooling and the process parameters stay on file, so a repeat order matches the first part with no redesign.
What is the minimum order and the lead time?
A single cylinder is fine, with the same certificates and tests as a series batch. For motors and gears, tell us the quantity and we will quote. Die casting, powder metallurgy and MIM are tool-based series processes, so send us your volumes and we will size the tooling and quote. Filter elements can start as pilot pieces with the same testing as a series. We quote the lead time with the offer. It depends on the WC-Ni grade and its sintering route, on the permeability and bubble-point test schedule for a filter element, and on the material certificate.
Related capabilities:
Get a Quote
Send us a drawing, a specification or a sample of the part you need, and tell us what it is for: process pumps, agitators and mixers, valves, filtration and separation skids, dosing and metering pumps, or food processing machinery. We will quote the carbide seal ring or valve seat, the sintered filter element, the machined stainless part, the MIM component or the hydraulic cylinder, made to tolerance and tested before dispatch, with the documentation your component record needs.