From Sourcing to Packing: Our Comprehensive Quality Control Process for Steel Furniture

As a steel furniture maker, we understand the importance of quality control. At Shanghai Yadan Office Furniture Co., Ltd, we have implemented strict quality control measures to ensure that our products meet the highest standards.

Quality control means to have the best quality for the furniture we produce. This starts with the selection of materials. We choose Q195 cold-rolled steel sheet. Being cold-rolled steel alone ensures good tenacity, while Q195 steel has low carbon and manganese content, which brings good plasticity, processability and weldability. This type of steel has the characteristics required to shape beautiful and sturdy furniture. By using this type of steel, we can better process, stamp, bend and weld it.

Our production process starts with cutting large pieces of steel sheets into smaller materials, then through the stamping process, we use moulds to turn the steel into required shape and style. Then the steel is bent into required angle before being welded together. After that, we perform surface treatment to make the steel surface smoother, remove impurities, or add special textures. Next, we use the powder coating technique to treat the surface, creating a solid layer of coating to protect and decorate the furniture. After strict ultimate quality inspection, we package the furniture.

We understand that defects may occur at any stage of this production line. Therefore, if we only inspect the quality at the end of the process, it is too little too late. That is why we strictly supervise every step of the process so that we can detect and correct problems early and reduce the probability of defective products.

The Procurement

And the best way to control quality is to watch it from the origin. For the procurement procedure, our purchasing team strictly controls the quality of the materials we use. We only purchase high-quality cold-rolled steel sheets from authoritative and well-known large suppliers. After receiving the materials, our procurement team carefully inspects them to ensure they meet our standards.

For example, we check the carbon and manganese content. To manufacture good furniture, the steel must have a certain strength, ductility, and weldability. Though it could be varying depending on the categories of furniture, we generally use cold-rolled steel sheets with medium-low carbon content (between 0.05% and 0.25%) and medium-low manganese content (between 0.3% and 1.5%). Overall, we require low levels of these elements because they have good ductility, can easily undergo various deformations required for furniture manufacturing, and are easy to weld and assemble. However, these contents could neither be too low, otherwise the strength will be too low, and the products will not be sturdy. Surely these content numbers should already have been specified in the contract, but there may be discrepancies between what is on paper and what is delivered, so we need to check carefully.

Upon receiving the cargoes, we also check whether the surface of the steel sheet has scratches, dents, or other defects that may affect performance. In addition, we even conduct routine inspections to our steel suppliers, to check their production facilities and ensure that they apply the same high standards as we do. We also check their quality control procedures, whether they comply with industry standards and regulations, and their overall records of cargo shipments.

Welding

Welding is also a very important link in our furniture manufacturing process. It is actually a step where errors are relatively easy to occur thus affecting the stability of the furniture. If it gets unaligned or not welded firmly somewhere, it may cause problems with the furniture's appearance and performance. When welding, we carefully check for cracks or incomplete welding and correct them immediately when necessary. We also attach great importance to technology in welding and keep our techniques updated. We apply advanced laser welding technology, which shoots high-strength laser beams to melt and splice areas where needed in a high-precision and high-speed manner.

Stamping

Furthermore, in the stamping process, we achieve strict quality control by using advanced technology and equipment. We are equipped with an Automatic Sheet Metal Processing Line, which is a computer-controlled automation equipment that can accurately perform a series of processes from uncoiling, leveling, feeding to punching. Through computerized automation, it can ensure that each piece of material is manufactured with the same accuracy and precision, reducing the risk of defective products. This technology also greatly enhances real-time monitoring capabilities and can detect and take action immediately when errors occur. Through this automated stamping technology, the production line can better collect data for each product, including measurements, tolerances, elasticity, and other production data needed for strict quality control.

In fact, we strictly control the quality of our processing at each step, from cutting to stamping to bending, and from welding to surface treatment, to painting and packaging. We are always carefully looking for factors that may cause quality errors and have a battery of preventive measures all set for reducing the probability of defective products.