Customizable Features:
Ability Fabricators’ stainless steel chases are engineered for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, medical, food and beverage, chemical, and cosmetics environments where protecting pipes, plumbing, conduit, and utility infrastructure is as critical as maintaining facility hygiene. Fabricated to GMP standards and fully customizable to your facility’s configuration, each chase delivers the structural protection, hygienic surface performance, and compliance-ready construction that regulated manufacturing environments demand.
A stainless steel chase is a purpose-fabricated protective enclosure designed to cover, conceal, and safeguard pipes, plumbing, conduit, utility lines, and infrastructure runs within industrial and regulated facility environments. Unlike standard pipe covers or plastic ducting solutions, stainless steel chases are engineered to withstand the cleaning regimes, chemical exposure, moisture conditions, and compliance requirements of pharmaceutical, food processing, medical, and other regulated manufacturing environments.
At Ability Fabricators, our stainless steel chases are not generic enclosures. Every unit is fabricated to the specific dimensions, configuration, and finish requirements of your facility; ensuring the chase integrates cleanly into your environment, protects the infrastructure it covers, and supports your facility’s hygiene and compliance standards from the moment it is installed.
Whether you need to conceal overhead pipework in a pharmaceutical production suite, protect plumbing runs in a food processing facility, or enclose utility conduit in a cleanroom environment, AFI fabricates stainless steel chases to fit your exact application.
Stainless steel chases function as protective outer enclosures that surround and shield internal infrastructure from the external environment while maintaining access for inspection, maintenance, and servicing when required. Their design and material selection are what distinguish a compliant industrial chase from a basic cover.
Infrastructure Protection: The primary function of a stainless steel chase is to protect the pipes, plumbing, conduit, and utility lines it encloses from physical damage, chemical exposure, and environmental contamination. The structural rigidity of stainless steel construction provides impact resistance and dimensional stability that plastic or painted steel alternatives cannot match in demanding industrial environments.
Moisture and Leak Management: In environments where condensation, process moisture, and potential pipe leaks are ongoing concerns, properly designed stainless steel chases incorporate drip edges and drainage features that direct moisture away from walls, floors, and adjacent equipment; preventing water ingress damage and eliminating the standing moisture that creates microbial contamination risk in regulated facilities.
Hygienic Surface for Cleandown: In pharmaceutical, food, and medical environments, every surface in the facility is subject to routine cleaning and sanitization; including the external surfaces of chases and pipe covers. The smooth, non-porous external surface of a stainless steel chase withstands repeated chemical sanitization without degrading, staining, or developing surface defects that harbour contamination between cleaning cycles.
Controlled Access for Maintenance: Stainless steel chases are designed to contain while allowing controlled access; enabling maintenance teams to inspect, service, and repair the infrastructure within without dismantling permanent structures. Access panel integration and removable section designs are available where regular internal access is a requirement.
Stainless steel chases are specified wherever protecting utility infrastructure and maintaining hygienic, cleanable surfaces across the full facility environment are equally important requirements.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: In pharmaceutical production and packaging environments, exposed pipework and conduit runs represent both a contamination risk and a GMP compliance concern. Stainless steel chases provide a smooth, crevice-free enclosure surface that integrates into the facility’s cleaning and sanitization regime without compromising access to the infrastructure within. Material traceability, documented surface finishes, and GMP-compliant fabrication make AFI chases a qualified component of your pharmaceutical facility infrastructure.
Food & Beverage Processing: Food processing facilities governed by HACCP, CFIA, and FDA standards require that all facility surfaces; including those covering pipes and utility runs; be constructed from materials that can be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. Stainless steel chases satisfy this requirement, providing a washdown-compatible enclosure surface that eliminates the contamination risk posed by exposed pipework and the harbourage opportunities created by non-hygienic cover materials.
Medical & Healthcare Facilities: In clinical environments, sterile processing departments, and medical device manufacturing facilities, infection control extends to every surface in the space; including infrastructure enclosures. Stainless steel chases provide the smooth, disinfection-compatible surface that healthcare facility hygiene standards require, supporting your infection prevention programme across the full physical environment.
Nutraceutical & Cosmetics Manufacturing: Nutraceutical and cosmetics producers operate in environments where product contamination risk must be minimised at every point in the facility. Stainless steel chases eliminate the contamination harbourage risk of exposed or poorly enclosed pipework, presenting a clean, sanitizable surface that supports the hygienic facility standards these industries require.
Chemical Manufacturing: Chemical processing environments expose facility infrastructure to aggressive chemical atmospheres that degrade standard pipe cover materials rapidly. Grade 316 stainless steel chases provide the corrosion resistance needed to maintain structural integrity and surface quality in these environments, protecting both the infrastructure within and the surrounding facility from chemical exposure and degradation.
Cleanroom Environments: Cleanroom facilities demand that every surface and enclosure within the controlled environment contributes to particulate and contamination control rather than undermining it. Stainless steel chases with smooth, crevice-free external surfaces and mirror-polished finishes are the appropriate enclosure solution for cleanroom pipe and conduit runs; supporting the particle control and surface cleanability standards that cleanroom classification requires.
Corrosion Resistance in Demanding Environments: Stainless steel does not rust, corrode, or degrade when exposed to the moisture, cleaning chemicals, and process atmospheres present in industrial and regulated manufacturing environments. This corrosion resistance maintains the structural integrity and hygienic surface quality of the chase across its entire service life; eliminating the degradation, staining, and contamination risk that painted steel, aluminium, or plastic chase materials develop over time.
Non-Porous, Hygienic External Surface: The smooth, non-porous external surface of a stainless steel chase resists bacterial adhesion and contamination accumulation; making it genuinely cleanable to the standards required by pharmaceutical, food, and medical facility hygiene protocols. This is not a property that can be achieved with painted or coated alternatives, which develop surface defects and porosity over time as coatings degrade under repeated cleaning exposure.
Structural Durability and Impact Resistance: Industrial facility environments subject infrastructure enclosures to physical impact from equipment, trolleys, and operational activity on a daily basis. Stainless steel construction provides the structural rigidity and impact resistance needed to maintain dimensional stability and enclosure integrity under these conditions, without deforming, cracking, or losing the surface quality needed for hygienic performance.
Long Service Life and Total Cost of Ownership: The combination of corrosion resistance, structural durability, and low maintenance requirements means that stainless steel chases deliver a significantly lower total cost of ownership than alternatives that require periodic repainting, replacement due to surface degradation, or more frequent cleaning intervention to maintain an acceptable hygiene standard. The initial investment in stainless steel construction returns value across decades of reliable service.
At Ability Fabricators, every chase we produce is fabricated to the specific dimensional, functional, and compliance requirements of your facility; not selected from a standard range. We engineer around your infrastructure layout, your facility’s hygiene requirements, and your regulatory obligations from the very first consultation.
Material Type: 304 vs. 316 Stainless Steel: Grade 304 is the standard specification for most pharmaceutical, food-grade, and medical facility chase applications, providing strong corrosion resistance against typical cleaning agents and environmental conditions. Grade 316 is specified for chemical processing environments and applications involving aggressive chemical atmospheres or elevated chloride exposure, where enhanced corrosion resistance is required to maintain long-term surface and structural integrity.
Surface Finishes: We offer brushed or satin finishes for general industrial and sanitary applications, and mirror-polished finishes for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and cleanroom environments where surface smoothness specifications must be documented and validated. All finishes are applied consistently and inspected before delivery to confirm compliance with the specified standard.
Custom Sizing: Chase dimensions are fabricated to your exact spatial and infrastructure requirements; accommodating any pipe configuration, conduit run geometry, wall profile, or installation constraint your facility presents. Standard sizes are available as a starting point, but every unit can be adjusted to fit your specific application without compromise.
NEMA 4 Rated Options: For applications where the chase must provide protection against water ingress, dust infiltration, and environmental exposure in addition to its primary enclosure function, NEMA 4 rated construction options are available. These provide a sealed enclosure standard appropriate for washdown environments and locations subject to direct water exposure.
Drip Edge and Drainage Integration: Where condensation, process moisture, or potential pipe leak management is a requirement, drip edges and integrated drainage features are incorporated into the chase design; directing moisture away from walls, floors, and adjacent equipment and eliminating the standing water risk that creates contamination and structural damage concerns in regulated facility environments.
GMP-Compliant Construction: For pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food-grade, and medical facility clients operating under Good Manufacturing Practice requirements, we fabricate chases with crevice-minimised external weld profiles, documented surface finishes, and full material traceability to support equipment qualification, facility validation, and regulatory inspection.
Every AFI stainless steel chase is fabricated to the same exacting standards that define our full industrial product range; because in regulated manufacturing and healthcare environments, the quality of every surface in the facility matters.
Ability Fabricators brings over 150 years of combined fabrication expertise to every product we manufacture. Our stainless steel chases are produced under the same rigorous quality process that governs our pharmaceutical, food-grade, and cleanroom equipment lines; because the regulated facility environments our chases are installed in demand documented, verifiable quality at every stage of fabrication.
Material Traceability: All stainless steel used in AFI chase fabrication is mill-certified, with documented material grade records maintained throughout production; supporting your quality records, facility validation documentation, and regulatory submission requirements.
Weld Quality: Welding is performed by qualified welders to applicable sanitary and structural standards, with weld quality inspected throughout the fabrication process to ensure consistency across every external and internal joint on the finished chase.
Surface Finish Verification: Where surface finish specifications are defined; including Ra value requirements for pharmaceutical, cleanroom, or food-grade compliance; post-fabrication surface inspection is performed and documented prior to delivery.
Dimensional Inspection: Every chase is inspected against its engineering drawings prior to release. Overall dimensions, profile geometry, access provision locations, and integrated feature positions are all verified and documented to ensure the unit matches your approved specification exactly.
Compliance Documentation: Material certifications, weld records, dimensional inspection reports, and surface finish documentation are available to support your internal validation, facility qualification, and regulatory compliance processes. Confirm your documentation requirements with us at the time of enquiry so we can include them in your order scope.
In-House Engineering Expertise: Our engineering team works with you from initial consultation through final design approval; ensuring every dimension, profile, finish specification, access provision, and integrated drainage feature is confirmed and optimised for your specific application and installation environment before fabrication begins.
Fully Custom Fabrication, Not Catalogue Selection: Every AFI chase is built to a confirmed specification designed around your facility’s infrastructure layout, your hygiene requirements, and your compliance obligations. We do not ask you to adapt your installation to fit a standard product; we fabricate to fit your facility precisely.
Deep Regulated-Industry Experience: Decades of experience supplying pharmaceutical, food processing, nutraceutical, cosmetic, chemical, and medical device manufacturers across North America; industries where every surface in the facility is subject to compliance scrutiny and where fabrication quality and documentation are audited requirements. This experience is embedded in how we approach every chase design and fabrication.
Full Project Support: From the first conversation about your facility’s requirements through design, fabrication, delivery, and beyond, Ability Fabricators provides consistent, responsive support; including technical guidance, compliance documentation, and assistance with any post-delivery requirements your facilities team or regulatory auditors may have.
Proven Track Record: With over 150 years of combined team experience and a client base spanning North American manufacturing and healthcare industries, our reputation is built on one consistent foundation: delivering equipment and facility components that perform as specified, meet your compliance requirements, and earn long-term client confidence.
Tell us your infrastructure configuration, facility environment, and compliance requirements; and we will fabricate stainless steel chases built precisely for your installation.
AFI stainless steel chases are fabricated to enclose pipes, plumbing runs, conduit, utility lines, and other facility infrastructure. Custom profiles and dimensions are available to accommodate any infrastructure configuration your facility presents.
Grade 304 provides strong corrosion resistance for most pharmaceutical, food-grade, and medical facility environments. Grade 316 is recommended for chemical processing environments and applications involving aggressive chemical atmospheres or elevated chloride exposure, where enhanced corrosion resistance is required to maintain long-term performance.
Yes. NEMA 4-rated construction options are available for applications requiring protection against water ingress, dust infiltration, and environmental exposure, such as washdown environments and locations subject to direct water contact.
Yes. Removable panels, hinged access sections, and access apertures are available and are fabricated to the same quality standard as the primary chase structure, maintaining hygienic surface continuity while enabling required internal access for maintenance and inspection.
Yes. We fabricate to specified surface finish standards, including documented Ra values, and provide post-fabrication inspection records to support your facility qualification and regulatory compliance process.
Yes. Mill certifications, dimensional inspection records, weld documentation, and surface finish records are all available to support your facility validation, equipment qualification, and regulatory compliance submissions.
