Stainless steel labour norms

[Mechancalman1]

Good afternoon everyone,

I am a mechanical estimator and about to embark on a mechanical estimate with all the services in stainless steel. I'm not familiar with the labour norms for installation. Does anyone have a list of stainless steel labour norms for all sizes and types of stainless steel pipe and fittings? If where I can find these? I am in the U.K.

Kind regards

 

[racookpe1978]

I don't know UK requirements and safety reg's - so take this with a grain of salt. (Or a shaker or two.)

Stainless is tougher than mild steel, otherwise, it handles little differently for comparable thickness and cuts. Close, - not the same! - but comparable for general estimates. Being 10% off for machining 10 items might be recoverable. 10% off for 150,000 item production runs may kill your business.

However. Stainless is much more expensive, thus lost material (over-runs, wasted material, lost drop lengths, weld wire/pound wire, and purchase prices are much higher compared to carbon steel. Annealing and treatment need to be taken with care, or you lose pieces to bad heat treatment or the wrong heat treatment or cooling. Contamination with carbon steel cutters, grinding wheels, files, vises, and setup tooling and jigs needs to be selected with care - or the stainless gets surface contamination that subsequently corrodes and discolors. So, your tooling and jigs need to be segregated and RIGOROUSLY controlled = more expensive for tools you think you already have paid for.

Welding gases need to be checked, and weld specs need to be verified. Again, more expense in baseline tooling.

Welding hex-chrome and safety airborne particulate for hex-chrome particles is the latest "lawyer's penalty" for enviro safety and precautions. You may need expensive power air masks and filters to cut and grind and weld the stuff.