Metal fabrication and welding is a prevalent method that refers to the cutting, shaping or moulding of a metal into final products. There are no ready-made end products here, but the process itself develops end products from scratch or semi-finished components. There are various processes involved in the production of fabricated metals. It depends on the material which is being used and the end product intended to be made.
Consider these standard methods employed in the fabrication of metal while assigning a fabricator.
Different processes of fabrication
Fabricated metals go through different techniques before the final product is generated. The following are the general metal fabrication techniques used.
1) Casting
To get the desired shape, the preferred metal is dropped into a mould. After cooling, it is used for creating products. It is really helpful for mass production to produce identical outputs. Different types of casting includes die-casting, sand casting etc. Vacuum, die, and fine mixture of sand is used in various processes.
2) Cutting
As the name suggests, it is the cutting of pieces of metal into smaller sections. Cutting could be done with laser, waterjet, plasma arc or power scissors. There are manual and computer numerical computer cutters too used in this process. It is one of the primary stages fabricated metals go through.
3) Drawing
Metal is pulled through a pointed die so that it will become thinner in shape. It is conducted at room temperature, but the metal will be heated as required. This is called cold drawing.
4) Folding
To mould sheet metal, metal using pressure is bent at an angle. It is also done by using a hammer or a folding machine. The folding machine is called a folder with a flat surface, a clamping bar and a front surface.
5) Forging
The compressed metal from the folding process is shaped in the forging process. There is cold forging and warm forging. If the process is done at the standard temperature, it is called cold forging. If the metal is heated during the process, it is hot forging. Hammer and die is used in this process.
6) Extrusion
In this process, the cross-section of the metal is reduced by letting it in and out of the die. There are hot extrusion and cold extrusion. For copper fabrication and aluminium customisation, hot extrusion is used. Steel production is done by cold extrusion.
Now, check out the important things to know about custom manufacturers:
Choosing a Manufacturer
To ease the selection technique for a project, there are factors like rate of manufacturing, quality of production and cost-effectiveness. This could be easily done by choosing a reputed seller or an efficient metal manufacturer. Consider these aspects during the selection process:
1) Experience
Choose an experienced manufacturer always so that the right material and right process will be a heart for the person. There are experienced and well-established retailers in the market who have immense experience. That is also an obvious reason to choose the best.
2) Type of Production
Before choosing a custom fabrication service, be well aware of the production. It could be short term or long term. Also, it could be low volume or high volume.
3) Resources
There are manual machines and CNC machines for finely detailed projects. The size of the machinery and the product determines the resources used for production. Choose the company which has a specialisation in fabrication.
