The technology of integrated stretching water tank is widely popularized, and stretching water tank has replaced welding as the industry's basic standard

According to the 2026 Kitchen and Bathroom Manufacturing Industry Process Census data, the proportion of domestic shipments of Stretching Sink integrated stretching sinks has exceeded 81%. The production capacity of traditional split welding sinks continues to shrink, and most small and medium-sized manufacturers have closed their welding production lines. The integrated stretching forming process has officially become the universal manufacturing standard for household stainless steel sinks, completely rewriting the industry pattern where welding sinks have dominated for more than a decade. The integrated stretching process relies on the hydraulic integration of a whole stainless steel plate, with no joint welds on the groove body, solving the three major long-term pain points of rust, water leakage, and dirt accumulation at the welding position from the root. The product's service life is more than twice that of the welded version.
Early integrated stretching water tanks were limited by equipment and sheet technology, and could only produce shallow and small-sized single tanks. Large depth double tanks and wide body water tanks could not achieve integrated molding; After five years of equipment iteration, the localization of large tonnage hydraulic stretching equipment has been implemented, combined with high ductility 304 stainless steel coil. The current production line can form a full range of products including super large single groove, stepped double groove, and curved water groove with a depth of over 23cm and a width of over 80cm in one go. The process adaptation range fully covers all specifications for household use. At the production cost level, the automation level of the large-scale integrated stretching production line has reached over 90%, and labor costs have been significantly reduced. The retail price difference at the end continues to narrow. In the past, the integrated stretching water tank was more than 50% more expensive than the welding version, but now the price difference only maintains 10% -15%. Consumers do not need to bear high excess prices to purchase high-quality products.
At the export market level, importers from Europe, America, and Southeast Asia have established clear procurement standards, prioritizing the purchase of integrated stretching sinks for bulk orders and limiting the share of welding purchases. They believe that the weld seam structure does not meet the long-term usage standards for overseas kitchens and bathrooms; In the first quarter of 2026, the export value of stretching water tanks accounted for 92.3% of the total export value of stainless steel water tanks, and welding payments were only used for extremely low budget engineering supporting orders. The current bottleneck in the industry is concentrated in the stretching loss of large-sized deep grooves, and the scrap rate of ultra large sheet metal stretching forming still remains at around 8%, with material loss pushing up manufacturing costs; The technical laboratories in major manufacturing regions are optimizing the plate pretreatment and segmented hydraulic stretching procedures, with the goal of reducing the scrap rate to within 3%. In the long run, the popularization of integrated stretching technology will accelerate the clearance of low-end production capacity in the industry. Small workshops that cannot update equipment and adhere to welding technology will gradually exit the market, and the overall manufacturing level and product quality of the industry will undergo a systematic upgrade.