Castle Metals Oil & Gas 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
- 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.
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Demagnetizing
- A procedure that reduces the magnetic flux to virtual zero by applying a reverse magnetizing field.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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