Machining is one of the vital manufacturing processes that involves the removal of material from the metal to create the required parts and products.
Met Cutting is a process in which metal is cut, drilled, ground, or otherwise finished as required by the use of appropriate tools and equipment on metal workpieces in their raw state. Laser and plasma cutting are some of the most widely used cutting services for metals.
Sheet metal fabricators are companies that work mainly in the process of cutting and shaping thin metal pieces and turning them into parts and goods.
Sheet metals are metals that are below 6mm in thickness and are available in various qualities, such as steel, aluminum, copper, and stainless steel. Sheet metalworking is a practice that involves the formation of various components for many industries by cutting, bending, punching, welding, and finishing sheet metals.
Some of the most common sheet metal cutting services offered by fabricators include:
- Laser Cutting: This process involves the use of a high-power laser beam to heat and vaporize or scribe thin material like sheet metal with depth and precision. Laser cutting can make different complicated contours and tiny openings with metals with thicknesses up to 25.4 millimeters. It offers clean, sharp edges with a fine finish that requires only a bit of touch-up work.
- Waterjet Cutting: Waterjet machines use a high-pressure pump with water and garnets to cut through metal with an extremely high-pressure stream. It is a type of cold-cutting procedure that enables the production of fine and neat cuts that are not marred by heat in materials that may be as thick as eight inches. It can cut materials with tapering edges and different thicknesses.
- Plasma Cutting: Plasma cutters ionize gas into a hot plasma stream over 25,000° F, and it, in effect, burns through conductive metal at a very fast pace in material above 1 inch thick and cuts cleanly. This is because it provides faster and cheaper metal cutting than lasers while having a rough surface.
- Shearing/Stamping: Shear machines employ metallic cutting blades with which they apply pressure to cut straight lines or standard curves from sheets of metal. The stamping press workpiece utilizes shaped die tools to emboss intended shapes, holes, and apertures on sheet metals fed to the press. They are both efficient and cutting processes for high volume requirements.
In addition to cutting, sheet metal fabricator commonly offer other secondary fabrication services including In addition to cutting, sheet metal fabricators also commonly offer other secondary fabrication services, including:
- Bending: forming vales and parts with sheet metal through processes such as those done using press brake and other related equipment.
- Punching: Making holes and notches on the sheets of metals to be used to fix fastening, wiring, and assembling products with the help of punch presses.
- Welding: Melding sheets of metal by employing MIG, TIG, spot, and other types of welds.
- Finishing: Ironing sharp edges of the cut metals, removing sharp edge projections, also known as burrs, surface preparation for powder coating or paint by processes such as abrasion, etc.
In deciding on a sheet metal fabricator to award a production run, customers must consider the following factors: type of material, size of parts, tolerances, lead time, secondary operations, and certifications relevant to the application and your business. Old-fashioned fabricators will be in a position to present their portfolio to you, normally comprised of their past work in your specialty industry in matters related to sheet metal cutting and fabrication. It takes confidence to hire the services of a qualified sheet metal fabricator to ensure quality custom metal parts are produced competitively.
