US manufacturing is the second largest in the world, behind China. You have to stay competitive in the face of rapidly changing economic conditions. Using the best machine parts is one way to give your business an edge.
The Shim Shack will work with you to get the top-quality shims you need. Learn more about what to consider when choosing machine parts and how the Shim Shack can help.
A one-size-fits-all approach is rarely the right one for shims. The Shim Shack gives you the option of customizing your machine parts from our library or submitting a drawing for custom manufacturing. Customization options include:
If none of our standard parts meets your needs, we can create a custom design based on your drawing. Custom manufacturing gives you parts that meet your exact specifications.
Automated production lines produce a certain number of imperfections. The Shim Shack uses thorough quality control on our customized parts to ensure accuracy.
You can choose from a variety of materials for your industrial parts from The Shim Shack. We'll help you find the best metal for your application.
Aluminum is a strong but lightweight material. It resists corrosion, and it's highly formable. The Shim Shack offers several grades of aluminum for manufacturing parts.
Brass has a low friction rate. It's a good choice when you need to avoid sparking. Brass is a good conductor, and it's corrosion-resistant.
Bronze is very durable. It resists wear and corrosion. It has high formability.
Copper is highly corrosion-resistant. It resists cracking and will bend into a wide range of shapes. Copper is ductile and has very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
The Shim Shack offers four types of steel shim stock:
Hot rolled steel is an economical option. If you need tight tolerances, though, cold rolled steel is a better choice.
Several grades of stainless steel are available for your machine parts. Stainless steel is resistant to corrosion and extreme temperatures. It's very strong and durable.
Spring steel has a high yield strength. It can withstand compression, bending, and twisting. It has good tensile strength and fatigue strength.
At The Shim Shack, we use the latest equipment and technology. We feature CNC laser cutting for flat sheet metal parts. Laser cutting offers many advantages for your metal shims.
Laser cutting is highly accurate. It gives you high precision without the need for after-treatment. This reduces costs and gives you a faster turnaround.
A CNC laser cutting machine is fast, even for complex cuts. It gives you high repeatability. Your parts are exact duplicates of each other.
You're likely to need machine parts on an ongoing basis. The Shim Shack will partner with you to help your business succeed. We'll help you design customized shim solutions for your applications.
With The Shim Shack, you get a short lead time and a fast turnaround for your custom order. We offer a quality product and competitive pricing.
Request a quote today and experience the difference that working with a market leader can make.
Austenitic stainless steel remains the most common types of stainless steels. They have much more nickel content compared with other types of stainless steels.
As well, they also contain higher amounts of molybdenum, nitrogen and chromium among the members in the stainless steel family.
Austenitic stainless steels get their fame by their excellent weld-ability and malleability.
That’s why you can easily find them in the products for kitchen cutlery and storage components.
Also, the materials receive a bunch of credit for their outstanding strength capabilities. Plus, they have great anti-corrosion performance, which enables their versatile applications in an environment with corrosive elements. Typically, 304 stainless steel and 316 stainless steel as you might have heard.
To talk about the downside of austenitic stainless steels is their expensive price. Meanwhile, the prices come with excellent quality.
Fortunately, you can always find a competitive price if you buy stainless steel coil from China, as we talked earlier.
This type of stainless steel comes with low but still some amounts of carbon.
The carbon in ferritic stainless steel does not exceed 0.10% in most cases though.
The material mainly consists of chromium while other elements are common to see as additions such as molybdenum. Unlike most Austenitic stainless steel, Ferritic stainless steel is magnetic.
Still, you can find their footprints in many applications thanks to their resistance to stress corrosion cracking.
As a result, many manufacturers use them for kitchen cookware, car components, and other industrial products. Situations with potentials to contact with corrosive matters.
430 stainless steel and 434 stainless steel are the common members of the Ferritic stainless steel family.
And it’s not very difficult to buy stainless steel coil from China with these 2 types of materials.
Duplex stainless steel is a species stronger than ferritic stainless steel and austenitic stainless steel.
But the material contains less nickel than the Austenitic ones. That’s why Duplex stainless steel remains less expensive compared with its Austenitic counterpart.
Due to its resistance to corrosive saltwater even over a long time, you can find them heavily used in the underwater oil industry.
Besides, because of their strong malleability and weldability, Duplex stainless steels are often shaped into various components.
S31803 stainless steel and S32205 stainless steel are both typical Duplex stainless steels.
Martensitic stainless steel is similar to Ferritic stainless steel in the structure.
But the carbon amount makes it different.
The percentages of carbon element in martensitic stainless steel hover around 1%. Correspondingly, the amount in Ferritic stainless steel stays below 0.10%.
And the amount of carbon matters indeed, as it allows the material to have great extents by the hardening process.
The footprint of Martensitic stainless steel lies in applications with the needs for high strength.
However, the anti-corrosion performance of Martensitic stainless steel remains average, compared with Austenitic stainless steel with high nickel particularly.
You might often see Martensitic stainless steel in pumps or valves and many other applications with fewer requirements for corrosive issues.
The typical martensitic stainless steels include 431 stainless steel and 420S45 stainless steel.