How do bike tool suppliers make sure bike tool quality?
In 2020, the bicycle market was booming that made thriving development. Through last year, China’s bicycle industry exporters, including bicycle, bicycle accessories, bicycle parts, bicycle tools, and other bicycle-related products have been sold more than every year. It reached a new record. Export enterprises that were still struggling to find customers in 2019 have received a steady stream of orders in 2020, and even the order completion time can only be delayed due to insufficient production capacity. This is not just a simple result of the hot market. The quality of Chinese enterprises has been recognized by foreign customers. They can produce practical and durable bicycle tools to meet customers’ needs.
As a bicycle tool manufacturer, how to ensure the quality of bicycle tool production? Now let’s enter the real world of bicycle manufacturers.
How do bicycle suppliers produce bicycle tools?
First, how do bicycle manufacturers buy raw materials?
There are many kinds of bicycle tools. It may take thousands of kinds to include all the tools. The regular bike tools are usually only about 100 kinds. Regular raw materials include steel and plastic. Among them, steel is the main material. Bicycle manufacturers mainly use the following three kinds of materials:
1. Chrome-Vanadium Steel
Chromium vanadium steel, element symbol CR-V, is a kind of alloy tool steel added with chromium-vanadium alloy element. After heat treatment, its hardness is above 60HRC (Rockwell hardness), and it has good wear resistance under specific working conditions. It is suitable for making bicycle wrenches and other tools. Chromium and vanadium elements are added to this kind of alloy. The defect is that the manufacturing process is more complex, and the market cost will be higher.
2. Carbon Steel
In addition to carbon, carbon steel also contains a small amount of silicon, manganese, sulfur, and phosphorus. Generally, the higher the carbon content in carbon steel, the greater the hardness, the higher the strength, but the lower the plasticity. Carbon steel can get higher hardness and better wear resistance after heat treatment.
3. Alloy Steel
Alloy steel, alloy steel is on the basis of carbon steel, there is s to add one or more appropriate amount of alloy elements so that it has better special properties than steel. Aluminum alloy is commonly used.
Most bicycle tools are made of carbon steel or alloy steel. The raw material supplier will quench, shape, and divide the steel according to the order requirements, and then transport it to the bicycle tool manufacturer. Bicycle tool manufacturers usually prepare 3 to 6 months of expected raw materials for storage in the warehouse. The warehouse conditions should be ventilated, the temperature should be suitable, and the raw materials should be stored in different categories. The price of steel is an important factor affecting the cost price of bicycle tools, because bicycle tools are simple processing products, and the proportion of technical factors is very small. The price fluctuation of a country’s steel in the international market will also affect the price of raw materials in the whole steel market. This is also the reason why bicycle tool manufacturers store raw materials.
Although there are many kinds of steel, not every material is suitable for making all kinds of bicycle tools. Usually, we will choose the cheaper one through the optional materials. If the customer specifies the material, it will also be produced according to the customer’s requirements.
Bicycle tool factories in China mainly produce middle and low-end bicycle tools, of which low-end bicycle tools are the main ones. Limited by production technology, the processing of bicycle tools is still manual, semi-automatic, and full-automatic machines. The automatic and semi-automatic machines used in the production of bicycle tools are responsible for precise position cutting. It will cut raw materials into fixed lengths and sizes according to the requirements for simple processing. In the standardized production, the automatic machine can better control the angle and range of cutting, so that the size of bicycle tools in the standard range. Tolerance and material hardness of bicycle tools are very important for bicycle tools. High-quality bicycle tools will maintain their sharp edges and tolerances to ensure durability. Hexagon wrench is the most obvious example of cheaper options, a faster loss of edge and tolerance, resulting in screw hole twist.
After the bicycle tools are produced by automatic machines, some bicycle tools need to be reprocessed manually. Usually, the manual work includes the reforging of raw materials, the basic molding, the re-processing of bicycle tools, the electroplating of finished parts, the assembly of parts, and the washing of finished products, etc.
How do bicycle manufacturers produce bicycles?
How do bike tool suppliers do product packaging and testing?
Most bicycle tools are made of metal. In order to avoid scratching the surface of bicycle tools during transportation, they need to be packed into inner bags, such as foam bags or inner boxes, so as to avoid touching them. Of course, if the bicycle tool itself constitutes a bicycle toolset, it will be more convenient for packaging. Separate packaging, especially by a tool bag or a tool kit, will increase the unit price of bicycle tools. Foreign customers sometimes use pallets to ensure the stability of the transportation process.
The detection of bicycle tools is mainly for the standardization of bicycle tools. First of all, the surface is intact without scratches. Then, the hardness, ductility, and standard performance of the bicycle tools meet the requirements and index range. Finally, we need to check the packaging and packing test of bicycle tools. When all the tests are qualified, the bulk goods can be sent out of the warehouse.
For bicycle tool manufacturers, it is our pursuit to fulfill every order on time with due diligence. A variety of bicycle tool standards bring challenges to production. There are many kinds of bicycle tools. If you want to produce more professional bicycle tools, it is necessary to reduce the variety and develop in the direction of more standardization.
