A 303 stainless steel cover plate covers the prismatic work: pockets, slots, faces and threaded holes produced to drawing rather than to a catalogue description. Below is the practical detail on 303 stainless steel cover plate supplied for medical: CNC milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification, the tolerance that is held, the finish applied and the documents issued with the parts.
Tolerance is applied where it does work rather than across the whole drawing. Critical features are held to ±0.02 mm, non-critical dimensions follow the general machining tolerance, and the difference is stated in the quotation rather than discovered later.
Specification
| Process | Cnc milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification |
|---|---|
| Material / configuration | 303 stainless steel |
| Size / capacity | 250 × 160 × 60 mm envelope |
| Tolerance | ±0.02 mm |
| Surface finish | as machined, bead blasted or anodised |
| Application | cover plate for medical |
| Inspection | Dimensional report, material certificate, first article report on request |
| Lead time | 7–15 working days for samples, 3–4 weeks for production |
| Minimum order | 1 piece for prototypes, from 50 pieces for production pricing |
Manufacturing process
Work is carried out with CNC milling with adaptive roughing, finish passes and on-machine verification. Tooling, speeds and fixturing are recorded with the part number, so a repeat order starts from a proven process instead of a fresh setup.
Material is purchased against a certificate and checked on receipt, so the composition is known before any cutting starts. Work in progress is identified by part number and operation, and the finished parts are deburred, cleaned and protected before they leave the machine area.
Typical applications
Most of the work supplied in this category falls into the following examples.
- Drive and control enclosures.
- Robot joint mounting brackets.
- Hydraulic manifold blocks.
- Instrument housings and panels.
- Camera and sensor mounts.
Quality control and documentation
Critical features are measured on calibrated equipment in a controlled room, and the results are filed with the job so that a repeat order can be compared with the first.
Material certificates to EN 10204 3.1, dimensional reports and first article inspection reports are issued with the shipment where the application requires them. Calibration dates and measurement uncertainty are recorded alongside every result.
Ordering, lead time and packaging
Packaging is specified by the part: individual protection for finished surfaces, separation for assemblies, and export crating with a packing list for shipment.
Frequently asked questions
How thin can walls be milled?
Down to about 0.5 mm in aluminium with a finishing strategy that leaves support material until the last pass. Thinner sections usually need EDM or wire cutting instead.
Is flatness guaranteed across large faces?
Flatness within 0.05 mm over 300 mm is routine with a facing pass and a stress-relieved blank. Tighter values need grinding or a defined inspection method in the drawing.
Do you keep tooling and programmes for repeat orders?
Fixtures, tool lists and verified CAM programmes are retained for the life of the part number, so a repeat release runs on the same setup as the first batch without a new proving run.
Drawings are reviewed for manufacturability before quotation, and any feature that adds cost without adding function is pointed out at that stage rather than after the parts are made.
