General Metal Fabrication: What Does it Really Mean?
Blog | February 14th, 2020Construction and manufacturing industries utilise the use of metal fabrication on their works and assemblies. Without metal fabrication methods and processes, they will be having a hard time forming products, equipment, accessories, and others out of metal. So, without a doubt, metal fabrication is a type of technological advancement that we get to enjoy today.
Defining Metal Fabrication
Metal fabrication is simply the process of building metal structures and machines out of raw metal materials. The steps involved in the metal fabrication process involve cutting, burning, welding, machining, forming, and assembly to create the final product, machine, or metal parts. To date, there are a lot of products that are made from general metal fabrication. Some of these products are hand railings, heavy equipment and machinery, cutlery, hand tools, architectural and structural metals, hardware manufacturing, spring and wire manufacturing, and many more.
Types of Metal Fabrication
Metal fabrication is categorised according to the end product of the metal being fabricated. To date, there are three types of metal fabrication
- Commercial Fabrication:General consumers use commercial products for their daily use. These products are frequently used at home or any small-scale activities that don’t involve any type of business or profit-making. Products such as appliances and cars fall under commercial fabrication.
- Structural Fabrication:Another set of products that are made from fabrication is structural products. Structural fabrication involves the creation of products that are used in building or construction processes. The metal parts of scaffoldings, roofs, and other tools and building parts are part of structural fabrication.
- Industrial Fabrication:From home and construction use, industrial fabrication is a type of fabrication that revolves around products frequently used in businesses. Industrial products can be equipment and tools that are used to manufacture commercial products. Bandsaws, ironworking machines, and other types of manufacturing machines are some examples of industrial fabrication.
The Metal Fabrication Process
The first step in a metal fabrication project is through designing. Since different industries have different products, a company must provide designs before doing the next steps. These designs must be precise, have the suitable metal material, and contain the correct calculations for each element and dimensions. The initial design is then tested out both physically and digitally to see if it is feasible and has met recommended standards for large-scale production.
The next step is the actual building of the material or the fabrication itself. The metal materials on this step will be cut and shaped according to the approved and tested design. The tools used for this step include shears, mills, lathes, and nibblers. Aside from these manual tools, modern equipment can now cut metal materials accurately according to the design specifications.
The finishing and assembling of the final product is the last step in metal fabrication. This step helps strengthen the product through finishing techniques likes grinding and deburring. These techniques remove any excess materials on the final product. Other finishing techniques that other metal fabrication company does are heat treating and plating. The marking or printing of measurements, company logos, and other information are all included in this step.
Metal fabrication is an important process that helps companies produce metal products. If you want to know more about the specific details of general metal fabrication, then give us a call now at McKean’s Sheetmetal Fabricators.
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