United Performance Metals’ Oakland, California location is focused on providing high-quality plate products and FIRSTCUT+® Processing Services. This facility is home to grinding and precision cold saw cutting machinery that achieves precise tolerances and surface finishes. United Performance Metals Oakland, California location primarily works with stainless steel and PRODEC® grades in plate form. These products are purchased from the highest quality mills in the world and are fully certified and DFARS compliant. UPM’s Oakland facility specializes in grinding and cold sawing, where they can further process plate products to meet customers’ needs. To learn more about UPM’s plate product offerings.

Grinding - UPM’s Oakland, California branch has the capability to grind various grades of stainless steel. Standard tolerances include thickness +/- .005”, flat and parallel w/I .005” and surface finish at 63 RMS. Additionally, this location has the capacity to grind external customer-provided materials. There are two types of grinding machines used to help achieve the proper tolerance and finish: Blanchard and Double Disc. Blanchard grinding uses a vertical grinding spindle with a cylindrical grinding wheel and flat magnetic chuck to hold ferrous material to be finished. As the magnetic chuck rotates, this action helps carry the work under the sides to remove the material. The rotary motion of the grinder allows work to be loaded in a full circle so there are no end pieces. Double Disc grinding works by using abrasive wheels on opposite sides of each other to grind and remove equal amounts from both sides of material. This process generally produces the highest level of flatness and parallelism on opposing surfaces and is typically used for high productivity jobs. To learn more about UPM’s grinding services.

Precision Cold Saw Cutting - UPM’s Cold saw cutting virtually eliminates the heat affected zones often incurred as part of the plasma cutting process and minimizes labor time and expense. Standard tolerances include 3/16" - 1 3/4" +/- .060 - .000 and 2" and thicker +/- .125 - .000. A cold saw is a circular saw with a toothed saw blade that keeps the primary material cool. The chips that are cut away from the metal absorb the heat, thus transferring it away from the material being cut as well as the cutting blade. United Performance Metals utilizes superior grade, precision tungsten carbide tips specifically suited for customer applications. To learn more about UPM’s precision cold saw cutting.