VSP = Vacuum Applications
The cleanest stainless plate available
Sandmeyer
Steel Company's Vacuum Select Plate (VSP) incorporates
quality controls every step of the way to ensure the highest
possible internal cleanliness for the most demanding vacuum
applications.
VSP
= Controlled melting and casting
Raw
materials are air-melted in an electric arc furnace and
refined in an argon oxygen decarburization or vacuum oxygen
decarburization unit.
Molten
stainless steel is cast into slab using the continuous
casting process.
During
casting, turbulence within the tundish created by the
feed stream from the ladle can be a major source of internal
cleanliness problems in steel. When making VSP material,
Sandmeyer controls this by carefully selecting a melt
source with a tundish that holds a large enough volume
of liquid metal to sufficiently dampen the turbulence
caused by the feed stream.
VSP
= Special identification and testing controls after
casting
Sandmeyer
purchases full heats of continuous cast slabs and then
rolls its plate from these slabs. Stringent identification
procedures from casting through final rolling allow Sandmeyer
to identify the slab from which every single plate has
been rolled. Only plates rolled from select slabs located
in the cleaner center of a cast are qualified as VSP material.
VSP material
is routinely subjected to and passes inclusion testing
that is performed by an independent laboratory in accordance
with the standard practice for determining inclusion content
of steel, ASTM E-45 Method A.
Finally,
"step-down" testing is performed on VSP material on a
routine basis by cutting circles from opposite corners
of a plate, machining steps on the faces at 1/16" increments
and closely examining the machined surfaces for sub-surface
defects.
VSP = The material for vacuum applications
For your toughest vacuum and semi-conductor applications
- call Sandmeyer and ask for Vacuum Select Plate.
