Sheet Metal Fabrication &Design
WHAT IS SHEET METAL FABRICATION?
Sheet metal fabrication is the process of turning flat sheets of steel or aluminium into metal structures or products, by cutting, punching, folding and assembling. Sheet metal can be cut, bent or stretched into nearly any shape, which is generally done by cutting and burning the metal.
Sheet metal manufacturing is suitable for a range of metal materials. Such as Steel, Stainless Steel, Aluminum, Copper, and Brass. In daily life, products manufactured by sheet metal processing are everywhere, including large equipment casings and even home appliance or smaller parts like brackets or enclosures. So it’s tied to us.
Material
There is a wide range of materials used in sheet metal engineering. It is important to make the best choice for your product to ensure optimal quality.
Here are some of the metal materials that used in fabrication:
Stainless Steel – They are widely used due to their resistance to corrosion and formability. Stainless steel are also used to make strong and corrosion-resistant products.
Hot Rolled Steel – Hot rolled steel is rolled by high temperature heating steel, its strength is not very high, but enough to meet our use, its plasticity, weldability is good, so we are more commonly used
Cold Rolled Steel – Cold-rolled steel is the steel of ordinary hot-rolled steel after strong drawing beyond the strain hardening stage, it has high strength, but toughness, poor solderability, hard and brittle.
Galvanized Sheet – They come with a protective coating to prevent them from rusting. They also support easy sheet metal processing methods due to increased ductility.
Aluminum – Another popular choice for the manufacturing sectors. It has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. It also comes with many characteristics(like light weight, strong, durable and corrosion resistant) that help it meet many application requirements.
DESIGN
Most people do not have a good understanding of the basic steps involved in sheet metal processing and manufacturing. Lack of basic knowledge will lead to the production of products that fail to meet their own requirements. Sheet metal processing usually requires multiple processes and requires a professional production team, and tools to get the job done successfully.
From start to finish, the metal fabrication design process includes:
The Idea
The formation of each project comes from an idea. Sheet metal processing is same. The project needs to start with the designer’s idea. We have a professional design engineer team. You can share your idea with us, and we will design; or we can cooperate with you to Design, for example, when designing 3D models, we will provide professional advice (wall thickness, bending size, hole direction, bending allowance, etc.)
Start making production drawing
Once the 3D modeling is done we need to start making the actual production drawings. The engineer needs to understand the whole product first and make blueprints. These blueprints will define the sheet metal specifications needed to make the initial drawings.
Initial sample making
For new products, we will first produce the first samples. After the production drawings are completed, we have a professional production system and send the drawings directly to the production workshop.Drawings usually include all manufacturing information, such as material selection, surface treatment, etc.
At the same time, the professional craft production master will do a secondary review of the drawings to ensure that the drawings drawn by the engineer meet the production process requirements.
After the second confirmation of the drawings, we will start the first sample production. During the production process, we will also carefully observe and record the problems that may occur in the production process. After the production is completed, we will have a professional quality inspection department to conduct inspections. Seal the sample after passing the inspection.
Mass Order Production
A prototype that passes testing and meets the required specification will go into full part production. After the production is completed, the quality inspection department will do inspection, and the qualified products can be shipped out, and the inspection qualification report needs to be provided when leaving the warehouse. Next, let us introduce the production process.
PROCESS
Laser Cutting
Laser cutting is usually the first step in sheet metal processing, and the rectangular material will be cut to the required size according to customer drawings.
WELDON has two precision large imported laser cutting machines,Laser cutting enables high precision (+/- 0.1 mm) and saves time.
Deburring
After the blanking is completed, there will be some fine burrs on the surface of the product. Weldon has a deburring machine that can easily remove the burrs. The surface of the product will not be scratched, making it safer and more beautiful.
Bending
Bending, as the name suggests, is about bending parts. We have 5 imported precision bending machines and many ready-made bending dies, which can save customers a lot of time and costs.
Stamping
Stamping is a cold-forming method that transforms flat metal blanks into various shapes. The process uses a tool and die, which, when impacted, change the form of the metal through the use of shear pressure.It encompasses punching, bending, as well as embossing. It also incorporates flanging, which entails swiping the sheet of metal in such a way as to form flanges.
Welding
Welding means welding the parts together is a very critical step. It requires the precision and firmness of the packaged product size. Usually during welding, we will do a lot of welding tooling for positioning to ensure that the size meets the requirements.
Polishing
After welding, there will usually be welding scars and burrs on the surface. We will polish it to ensure the surface is beautiful and smooth.
Powder Coating
For products with surface requirements, we will do surface treatment, such as spraying, galvanizing, etc.
We have our own powder coating line. We can customize the color as long as the customer provides the RAL Number, which is very convenient. At the same time, we will also phosphatize the product before spraying, remove oil and grease, and the product after phosphating treatment. , the adhesion of plastic powder is greatly increased, which ensures the quality of powder coating
Assembing
Products that need to be assembled, such as finished products, will be assembled according to the requirements of the drawings.
Inspection
In fact, our inspection process has always been there, we will inspect during production, re-inspect before surface treatment, pre-assembly inspection, pre-packaging inspection, which means that each item will be inspected four times.
At the same time, we also have an intelligent visual projection detector. When the cutting is completed, we only need to place the product on the ceremony to identify whether the size is consistent with the drawing to ensure the accuracy of the product
Packaging
