What is in the Balford factory?
A 12,000 m² production facility in Zhejiang, China with 500+ machines and tooling, presses from 25 t to 350 t, an in-house tool room and a metrology lab. Deep drawing runs up to Ø250 mm, and 4,000+ single-hit deep draw dies have been built since 2000.
| Area | What is there |
|---|---|
| Forming | Mechanical and hydraulic presses from 25 t to 350 t; single-hit deep draw dies, progressive dies and transfer tooling; maximum draw diameter Ø250 mm. |
| Tool room | Die design, machining, assembly, try-out and maintenance in house - 4,000+ single-hit deep draw dies built since 2000. |
| Machining | CNC turning and milling, wire EDM and secondary operations for sealing faces, threads and functional interfaces. |
| Tube and assembly | Tube bending, end forming, brazing and light assembly for welded or press-fit sub-assemblies. |
| Surface treatment | Cleaning, deburring and inspection in house; plating, phosphating, passivation, electropolishing and coating through qualified external processors. |
| Metrology | CMM, optical and profile measurement, roundness and concentricity checking, wall thickness measurement, surface roughness, leak testing and salt spray records on request. |
Production flow on a typical housing
- Drawing and DFM review - material, forming route, draw ratio and tolerance stack are checked before tooling is committed.
- Blank preparation and material certification against the ordered grade.
- Multi-stage deep drawing with intermediate annealing where the draw ratio requires it, followed by ironing when the wall has to be thinned.
- Trimming, piercing and forming of flanges, steps and sealing faces.
- Machining of critical features, cleaning and deburring.
- Inspection against the confirmed drawing, then packing to the agreed plan.
Location and logistics: the factory sits in Zhejiang, about 150 km from the Ningbo and Shanghai ports, which is what allows FOB shipments with dedicated trucking and short pre-shipment lead time.