Source mill · Since 2007 · 100+ countries
Eight production stages inside one fence, under one heat number, run by the same 280 people. Four signatures decide whether a batch leaves, and the last one does not belong to production.
Vendor questionnaires answered item by item · T+24 h on a working day
Scale
Nineteen years on one site, and every one of the fourteen grades electroslag remelted.
The whole works, on one plot, since 2007.
Who this is
Fucheng Tool Steel has run as a tool steel factory since 2007, on one site of 95,000 m² with 56,000 m² under roof. The works produces 24,000 tonnes a year and holds around 8,000 tonnes of finished stock.
That position fixes what the company is built to do. A distributor is judged by the certificate they forward and the consistency of what arrives, so the plant is arranged around producing both, rather than around selling small quantities to whoever asks.
Who buys here
Three buying patterns, three different things asked of the mill. The tool rooms and die shops downstream of you stay yours.
Buy across the range against enquiries passed up from tool rooms, often under a grade name that arrived from somewhere else in the chain.
Buy the five stock grades on a replenishment rhythm set by their own turnover, and plan the next quarter against the last one.
Arrive with project orders on the other nine grades and the heavy sections, where the answer turns on the press and the ingot size.
A first order does not have to be a leap. New customers commonly place one trial order, test what arrives against their own laboratory, and move to regular replenishment once it holds up.
What leaves here
Fourteen grades in five families. Cross-references are confirmed in writing before an order is accepted, so the confirmation can be forwarded.
| Family | Grades | Delivery condition |
|---|---|---|
| Hot work | H13 · 1.2367 · H11 · H10 · 1.2714 | Annealed |
| Cold work | D2 · DC53 · D3 · D6 · O1 | Annealed |
| Plastic mould | 1.2316 · 1.2085 · 420 | Annealed; 1.2085 and 420 also pre-hardened |
| High speed | M2 | Annealed |
| Cross-reference | AISI · DIN and W-Nr · JIS · GB · ASSAB · BÖHLER | Confirmed in writing before acceptance |
The full range, stock position and lead times sit on the tool steel manufacturer home page. The two highest-volume grades have their own pages: H13 tool steel and D2 tool steel.
Inside the fence
Eight production stages stand between an order and a shipment, and all eight are on this site.
One shop, two 15-tonne medium-frequency induction furnaces, three shifts.
A second shop of ten furnaces in continuous operation.
No building of its own — carried on the forging lines and in the annealing furnaces.
Three lines on two shifts: 2,500 t and 1,600 t fast forging, plus radial precision forging.
Eight bogie hearth annealing furnaces plus a quench-and-temper line for pre-hardened grades.
Four areas: sawing, grinding, milling, and turning and machining.
Laboratory, non-destructive testing and metallography in one building, not spread among the shops.
The quality department signing release on the EN 10204 3.1 MTC.
The seventh stage holds the physical and chemical laboratory, the non-destructive testing area and the metallography room in one building rather than distributed among the production shops. The eighth is certification, which is the quality department signing release.
Coverage
All fourteen grades are electroslag remelted. Not the premium four.
Nineteen years
Each step is here because it let the works do something it could not do the year before.
One 1,600 t fast forging press and two annealing furnaces, buying ingot from outside. Grades could be delivered, but composition and cleanliness were decided in somebody else’s furnace.
Shipping moved from domestic supply to export, and orders started being written to EN, AISI and JIS designations in parallel rather than one national standard.
Two 15-tonne medium-frequency induction furnaces on three shifts. From that point the analysis printed on a certificate was measured on steel made here.
The first four electroslag furnaces opened alongside a 2,500 t press, which brought Ø 300 to 600 mm and 500 mm thick sections into range with the core soundness to support them.
Annealing reached eight bogie hearth furnaces and the EFS regime was written per grade, which turned grain refining from shop-floor experience into a repeatable instruction.
Certification was granted and inspection was brought together in one building, making 100% ultrasonic testing to SEP 1921 Class D/d or E/e the gate every bar passes rather than a sample check.
The radial precision forging machine, two gantry grinders and four gantry mills arrived, so small sections are forged rather than cut down and 1,200 mm wide plate leaves at finished size.
Stock rose to around 8,000 tonnes, which is what makes 7 to 10 day despatch possible on the five stock grades and lets buyers order to a replenishment rhythm.
Carbon footprint certification and EU CBAM data preparation were added, so declaration figures for European buyers come from the mill that made the steel.
The step that mattered
Of those steps, the one that changed most about what could be sold was the move from four electroslag furnaces to ten in 2016.
With four, remelting was rationed to the grades that most needed it. A grade either qualified or it did not, and the answer changed with the order book.
A tool steel factory that remelts only its premium grades has furnace numbers that cannot reach its tonnage, and the gap shows the moment the two figures are put side by side.
Remelting reserved for the grades that most needed it; the answer to “is my grade remelted” moved with the order book.
Every grade remelted, every heat, with capacity that adds up to the whole annual tonnage rather than a premium slice of it.
Who writes the rules
The instructions that decide structure are not written on the shop floor. Sixteen metallurgical and process engineers issue the regime for each grade and section before the order reaches production.
That regime fixes the forging ratio, held to a minimum of 4:1, and the annealing curve, including the soak and the controlled cooling rate.
| On a heavy section | A works without its own melt shop | This works |
|---|---|---|
| Ingot size | Whatever size is available to buy in | Cast to suit, 3 to 12 tonnes |
| Forging ratio | Relaxed to make the section fit the ingot | Held at a minimum of 4:1 |
| Composition on the certificate | Measured on somebody else’s heat | Measured on steel melted here |
| Shortfall on a rejected heat | Bought in again to cover the gap | Remade from our own melting |
Where a section is heavy, the ratio is not relaxed. The ingot is made larger instead, which is what the 3 to 12 tonne range exists for. The reduction, the annealing curve and the hardness windows that come out of them are set out on the fine grain tool steel page.
Where stock sits
Twelve thousand square metres holding around 8,000 tonnes, laid out by grade and then by section so that a replenishment list is picked rather than searched for.
7 – 10 days Despatch on the five stock grades in their common sizes
Traceability
Every stage from the first heat to the signed certificate happens inside this fence.
Where release is decided
Independent of production, reporting directly to the general manager, holding the authority to stop a line and to refuse release.
Output and delivery targets are not part of the quality department’s appraisal. That is the mechanism which lets it hold a batch on a day when the shipping schedule would prefer otherwise.
The independence is not a courtesy. EN 10204 defines a 3.1 certificate as one validated by an inspection representative independent of the manufacturing departments.
Production cannot overturn a refusal to release. Until the disagreement is resolved, the material does not move.
Forging ratio and annealing curve for a grade are written by the metallurgical engineers.
Acceptance criteria and release rules are set by the quality department, not by the shop that made the steel.
Ultrasonic results may only be signed by operators trained and examined to ISO 9712 Level II, recertified every three years. An uncertified operator may run the equipment but may not sign the result.
Internally once a year, and by third-party surveillance on the ISO 9001 certificate cycle.
There is a cheap way to test any mill on this, including this one.
Ask in writing who signed the most recent refusal to release, and whether production has a route of appeal against it. A works where quality is a department will name the position and answer that there is no appeal.
Four signatures
Of the 280 people here, 34 work in quality and inspection — 10 certified ultrasonic operators, 8 in physical, chemical and metallographic testing, 8 on dimensions and visual inspection, 8 on the management system and certificate issue.
Signature 01
Issues the process regime for the grade and section before production starts.
Signature 02
Checks the finished sizes and the machining allowance against what was ordered.
Signature 03
Runs 100% ultrasonic testing to SEP 1921 Class D/d or E/e and signs the result for each individual bar, not for the batch.
Signature 04
Reads the eight-step file for the heat and decides whether it leaves.
Sales and scheduling appear nowhere in it. They can ask when a batch will clear, and that is the extent of their part.
Document set
It comes back item by item, matched to your numbering, within 24 hours on a working day — not as a general information pack for you to search through.
Before anything is quoted
A first enquiry does not go to a salesperson. It goes to the technical desk — six technical support engineers working alongside twelve export sales staff — and it is read before anything is priced.
The point of the check is to catch, at the desk, the four things that most often turn into a rejected delivery three months later.
Stopping an enquiry costs a day. Not stopping it costs a tool, and the tool belongs to your customer.
Both exist so that what you send downward does not have to be corrected later.
After the order is placed
Six functions touch an order, and only one of them can release it.
Goes to the quality department.
Goes to the sales desk.
Goes straight to the person holding the records for that heat, rather than being relayed through the chain.
When they pull against each other
Cost, delivery and quality do pull against each other. Quality is held and the date moves.
A heat reading outside its annealed hardness window is annealed again and re-measured before release, rather than released against the first reading.
Held back rather than shipped against a concession. There is no version of this where the batch leaves with a note attached.
Remade from our own melting to the same specification, which is only possible because the melt shop is on this site.
Retention
Records and certificate copies are kept for ten years.
What each document covers
Three documents, three different jobs. Each is sent on request, matched against whatever list your quality department works from.
Certifies the management system: how procedures are written, how records are kept and how deviations escalate across the whole works. It says nothing about any individual batch.
Carries the measured composition, hardness, ultrasonic result and structure ratings for your heat, signed by the quality department.
Covers the reporting side, together with EU CBAM data preparation for European buyers.
A management system certificate and a material test certificate answer different questions. Sent the first when you asked for the second, you have not been answered.
The declaration figures come from the mill that made the steel, rather than being reconstructed later by a consultant working from an invoice.
Come and look
Visits are welcome and are best booked five working days ahead. Six areas are open.
Process regime documents for a grade — the forging ratios and annealing curves — stay inside the works. What is open is watching them being executed, and asking the engineer who issued them.
Three years later
The real question behind a supplier audit is whether the steel bought three years ago can be bought again. Three things hold it steady.
That is the practical difference a tool steel factory with its own melt shop makes to a buyer who never sees it. The fifth order matches the first because it came out of the same furnaces, under the same regime, through the same inspection.
How the book is shaped
Distributors, stockholders, wholesalers and large-scale procurement buyers. Most of the business is repeat business rather than one-off purchases.
The five stock grades move on a rhythm set by the customer’s own turnover, drawn from the 8,000 tonnes held here and despatched in 7 to 10 days on common sizes.
The remaining nine grades and the heavy sections come as project orders when a specific job calls for them, scheduled against the press and the ingot size for that section.
No customer’s account is large enough to set the queue that every other customer waits in.
Reply T+24 h
You get feasibility, stock or production, and a lead time within 24 hours on a working day. Send a vendor questionnaire or a document list and it comes back completed on the same clock.
Or write to wonderful@fcstoolsteel.com · +86-18972782802 on WhatsApp. Mon–Fri 09:00–18:00 (GMT+8). Contact us to arrange a works visit or a video audit.