Equestrianism, also known as horse riding, is a popular sport in countries like UK, Australia, USA, and some other countries. Stirrups are items of the equestrian equipment that are known to every laymen. There’s an inherent risk when you ride, but there are steps you can take to lower that risk. Some of the most popular safety tools are safety stirrups, which are especially prevalent in jumping/eventing disciplines and with youth riders.
Safety stirrups are designed to free your foot during a fall so your foot doesn’t get caught. Normally, the bodies of safety stirrups are made of stainless steel casting. Stainless steel material can make the safety stirrups durable, and the polished finish can lead to an attractive look. To have the maximum strength, the safety stirrups are cast from higher stainless steel grades, like CG8M or 2205 duplex stainless steel, and additional heat treatment can help to improve the properties, which can improve the riding experience. Besides, the surface is mirror polished to achieve an attracive appearance. To make the equestrianism easier, safety stirrups manufacturers always try their best to effectively reduce its weight. The perfect stirrup can be used for beginners, professionals and the everyday riding activity. Cast stainless steel stirrup can give strong and durable advantages.
Safety Stirrups Casting Process
CFS Foundry is experienced in OEM service of cast stainless steel safety stirrups. Our company can cast any shape of safety stirrups from your drawing or 3d file, including lost wax investment casting, heat treatment and surface polishing. To protect the patent of your design, NDA document can be signed before sending your drawings. Below we share the casting process of safety stirrups in several steps:
Mold Manufacturing
Mold is necessaty before starting the stainless steel casting process of safety stirrups. The mold is usually in two halves, and precise machined from aluminum alloy. The cavity of the mold is actually the shape of the desired safety stirrups.
Stainless steel casting method used for safety stirrups is lost wax investment casting, which is the most precise casting method in China. To start, a wax pattern is made in the exact shape of the stirrup to be cast, which is formed by injecting wax into the mold. One wax pattern can creat one piece of safety stirrups. Then, mount the wax patterns to form a tree like assembly, coat the tree assembly with specific materials to form a coating. After drying the coating, heating the whole assembly into oven for dewaxing, and the hollow shell is formed. Then, pouring the liquid metal into the shell for solidification. After casting, finishing operations such as grinding, are commonly employed to smooth the stirrup at the gates and remove imperfections. To improve the strength and harden the stirrup, heat treating (solution treatment) is employed as well.
Mirror Polishing
Besides marine hardwares, safety stirrups are mirror polished as well. The degree of polishing difficulty depends on the structure of safety stirrups. Although mirror polishing can make the surface shinning and smooth, but it is only limited to surface polishing, some inner areas are difficult to polish, so the design of safety stirrups should be beneficial for surface polishing.
If you have such a safety stirrup project, and would like to source a reliable stainless steel investment casting manufacturer for your stirrup steel bodies with good prices, pls contact our stainless steel foundry or email cathy.sales01@cnool.net directly!
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