At Frantz Manufacturing Company, Sterling Steel Ball Division, we take our steel ball product Quality seriously.
We manufacture steel balls from raw material to finished product.
We control the entire process to ensure a quality product. Our steel balls are made to rigid automotive industry standards. Our Quality Management System, established in 1998, is registered to TS 16949 and ISO 9001. Click here for certificates. We have manufactured steel balls since 1947 and understand the properties that make for a quality ball product.
We have a strong product inspection process.
In addition to visual inspection of finished product, we employ roller size sorting techniques and eddy current technology to verify that your product meets expectations.
We have a sophisticated product testing laboratory.
Our laboratory examines case depth, hardness, and other metallurgical qualities that our products, balls or bearings, must meet. We sample our steel ball production runs and put the sample through a rigorous testing scheme to assure ourselves that the process is producing products that meet our own high quality standards.
Examples of Equipment in our Quality & Testing Department
Mounting/Grinder/Polisher
Balls are embedded in a suitable mounting medium and then cut in half. The Grinder/Polisher is used to create a mirror-like surface on the flat surface of the sectioned ball so that it can be examined with the metallograph.
Metallograph (reflected light microscope)
Balls are embedded in a suitable mounting medium, sectioned, ground, polished and etched. The metallograph is used to examine and evaluate the internal microstructure of the ball.
The shiny surface of the balls is actually composed of tiny scratches. We measure those scratches to a resolution of less than a millionth of an inch to ensure that surface roughness meets standards.
This machine is used to make a precision indentation in a highly-polished, flat, metal surface, and then measure that indentation. The size of the indentation is directly related to the hardness of the metal at the location of the indentation. This measures the surface hardness only.
This machine is used to make a precision indentation in a highly-polished, flat, metal surface, and then measure that indentation. The size of the indentation is directly related to the hardness of the metal at the location of the indentation. By making a series of indentations from ball surface to core, numerical values can be assigned to surface hardness, core hardness and effective case depth.
The diameter of the balls is measured with precision gages in custom fixtures designed specifically for balls so that desired accuracy is achieved.
This gauge is used to measure the Total Indicated Runout, or "concentricity" of bearings and drilled ball products.