Application of Stainless Steel in Washing Machine Industry
Since washing machines are often in aqueous media, their main components are required to have corrosion resistance. Therefore, the washing machine is the product in which stainless steel is mostly used in household appliances. Among them, the drum washing machine uses the most stainless steel.
1. Drum washing machine
The internal structure of the drum washing machine is mainly an inner tube, an outer tube, and front and rear flanges. Due to the high-speed rotation of the inner cylinder, the stainless steel material is generally 0.4mm to 0.6mm ferritic stainless steel, and a bright annealed surface is required. AISI430BA stainless steel is commonly used by domestic manufacturers. AISI430 material is equivalent to 1Cr17, and its average chromium content is 17%, which can meet the corrosion resistance requirements of civil water media; because it does not contain Ni, it is high-quality and inexpensive steel.
However, in Europe and the United States, AISI439BA material has been used more for the inner cylinder material. Because its composition contains a small amount of Ti, it can significantly improve the corrosion resistance of the weld part due to thermal processing after the inner cylinder body is welded; the 439 material is due to production The process is more complicated than the 430, the cost is about RMB 2,000/ton higher than the 430 material, and domestic steel mills do not produce energy, and only a few domestic appliance manufacturers use it. However, in the long run, the front-loading washing machine will develop towards high-end and durable, and AISI439BA will gradually be used. Applied to its inner cylinder.
Because the outer drum of the drum washing machine needs to play a certain role in supporting and connecting, generally 1.0mm AISI430 cold-rolled stainless steel plate is used; the flange part of the inner and outer drum connection, due to processing deformation, adopts AISI430 material with higher elongation, such as domestic For the 430 stainless steel material used by a large drum washing machine manufacturer, the elongation rate of the connecting flange is required to be above 27%, and the other parts are 22% to 24% according to the AISI430 standard.
2. Pulsator washing machine
Because it is a single inner tube, its body is simpler than that of a drum washing machine. It generally uses 0.5mm AISI430BA stainless steel material; Shanghai SK and Ningbo Baoxin Steel Work mainly produce this product in China. Europe is the manufacturing center of the world’s major home appliance manufacturers, such as Sweden’s Electrolux, Germany’s Siemens, Italy’s Merloni, etc. There are some of the world’s top stainless steel factories, such as Germany’s Krupp Thyssen (KruppThyssen Nirosta), France’s Uginor (Uninor), Sweden’s Avesta Sheffield (Avesta Sheffield).