Stainless Steel is one of the common materials for rapid prototyping and prototype manufacturing at Next Proto. We provide high quality stainless steel prototype from 1 off prototype to 500+ low volume production run. CNC machining and investment casting are the two main technologies.

1 off stainless steel prototype can be done precisely by CNC machining. Stainless steel is much harder than aluminum alloy. It costs about 2 to 3 times longer hours to machine than aluminum, but the material cost is just half of aluminum in China. 303, 304, 316, 316L, 17-4PH, 416, 420 stainless steel are available at Next Proto for CNC machining. Normally we will keep the milled and turned parts as machined finish if there’s no specific surface finish required. We employ the best machines and cutting tools to make sure the high quality machined surface and dimensional accuracy. Ra0.8 surface roughness can be achieved by CNC machining.

                  

When mirrored polished surface is required, we can apply high polishing to the surface. We have skilled model makers and have experience in making coffee machine grids, car lenses base part and esthetic stainless steel prototypes in superior finish. As it is a very hard material, it would be a bit expensive to produce prototypes in stainless steel with mirror polish finish. Our factory is based in China and the labor cost is just one fifth of the west, so our price is still very competitive compared to the west.

Investment casting, also named lost wax casting, is our technology to make low to high volume production stainless steel components. Although we have enough CNC machines for low volume production prototypes, investment casting is better than CNC machining in some cases. It is especially good for complex shape, undercuts, curved internal features with thin wall thickness parts. Or when the part is very large, CNC machining will need much longer time to do the roughing and finishing, lost wax casting is a suitable option to save cost and help to put the product faster in the market. We have multiple material options for investment castings, such as stainless steel alloy, titanium alloy, tool steel and mild steel. Our spectrometer can make sure all the material is real and formed in correct composition. We provide various secondary surface treatment to the parts. Next Proto is your one-stop supplier for CNC machined prototypes in stainless steel and low to high volume production quantity parts investment castings.