Wear plates and balance blocks made to your drawing. These are the sacrificial parts at every sliding, bearing and stop interface in a mold — the flat, stepped or angled pieces that take the rubbing so the plate behind them does not. Send a drawing, a sketch with dimensions, or a photo of the worn one next to a caliper, and we come back with unit price, lead time and trade terms in writing, normally within one business day.

The one decision that matters most: hardness relative to the mating part

A wear plate is meant to wear. That is its job, and it is why it is bolted on rather than machined into the plate. So the hardness has to be chosen against the surface it runs on, not chosen in isolation.

• Matched hardness is the mistake. Two similar hardened steel surfaces sliding on each other gall — they cold-weld at the contact points, tear, and then wear catastrophically fast. If a wear plate and its mating face are both around 55 HRC, you have built a galling pair.
• Deliberate difference is the fix. Either the wear plate is clearly harder than the mating face, so the plate survives and the cheap face is dressed occasionally, or it is clearly softer and bronze-alloy or graphite-plugged, so it wears and gets replaced on schedule. Both work. What does not work is the middle.
• Decide which part you want to replace. That answer sets the hardness, not the other way round.

Oil grooves, when you need them

Grooves hold grease between maintenance intervals so the interface is not running dry by day three. Two rules worth applying: the groove pattern must not break the bearing area at either end of travel, or the plate rocks; and depth is usually 0.5–1 mm — deeper does not hold more usable grease, it just removes bearing area.

Flatness and parallelism are the tolerances that count

Length and width can usually be loose. Thickness, flatness and parallelism cannot: a plate that is 0.05 mm out of parallel tilts the slide it supports, and the wear pattern tells you afterwards — a bright band on one edge and nothing on the other. State the flatness and parallelism you need; if you do not, we quote to normal practice and write the assumption on the quotation.

What to send us

• Length, width and thickness, and whether the part is flat, stepped, angled or tapered
• Hole, counterbore, slot and centre-distance layout
• Which face is the datum, and the mounting direction
• What the plate runs against — material and hardness of the mating surface
• Flatness, parallelism and surface finish where they are critical
• Material and hardness preference, or describe the duty and we will propose one
• Quantity, destination and required date

Replacing an existing plate? The old part plus a caliper photo is usually enough to start. Tell us how it failed — evenly worn, galled, cracked, or bolted-hole elongated — because that often changes what we would recommend.

Documentation and confidentiality

Material certificates, hardness results and dimensional inspection reports can be supplied — tell us what your quality system requires and the scope is confirmed, with any cost, in the quotation. Technical files are used to evaluate and fulfill your inquiry or order. They may be shared only with relevant manufacturing, inspection, logistics or service partners as needed. Send only files you are authorized to share. See our Privacy Policy. NDA terms can be reviewed by emailing rfq@privleymold.com.

"Wear plate" and "balance block" describe a function, not a standard, so we quote from your dimensions rather than from a type name.