Basic Techniques of Sheet Metal Fabrication

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Basic Techniques of Sheet Metal Fabrication
Sheet metal fabrication is all about forming,
shaping, and unifying of the metal to make
something useful out of it. There are several
tools and techniques that facilitate the process.
In this article, we will talk about the basic
techniques of sheet metal fabrication that are
used to form metal based end products. Bending Be
nding the metal for further processing leads to
the formation of much stronger products than by
cutting and welding. It can be done manually but
with the advent of technology now the job has
been shifted to machines which facilitate the job
to be done more precisely and quickly. Cutting Th
is is probably the most important process for
sheet metal fabrication. It is almost impossible
to create things out of metal sheets without
cutting them. The job can be done manually by the
use of hand shears but for large scale
productions, advanced shear machines (endowed
with quality shear blades) are preferred to cut
metal sheets. Apart from using heat and high end
mechanical machines to cut metal sheets, laser
cutting is increasingly coming up as a method to
cut metals in precise shapes and sizes.
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Shrinking Most metals exhibit the property of
expansion on heating and they contract on
cooling. Highly ductile metals exhibit properties
of shrinking to a greater extent which is
employed to form a metal product. There are
various methods for doing this as well. It can be
done by tucking metal where the metal is bunched
together by forcing it between the crevices with
a spade hammer. Another popular method is heating
where an overstretched area is heated and as the
area cools down, it shrinks. Shrinking disks are
also available nowadays that are attached to an
angle grinder which creates heat by using
friction. This doesnt involve the use of torch
or flames to heat and shrink the
metal. Stretching Stretching is the formation of
large contoured parts out of sheet metal by
stretching and bending it simultaneously over a
die. The most common way of stretching metals
sheets is by using hammer and dolly by
compressing and further stretching the metal
sheet. Sandbags and plastic mallets can also be
employed to do the job in similar
fashion. Alternatively, a stretcher is used which
follows the opposite principle of
shrinking. Metal Fusion Metal fusion or joining
is generally the last step towards the forming of
the end product. The process can be performed by
welding different pieces of metal together. This
is the most common type of joining metal and can
be further classified into Oxy Acetylene Welding,
TIG Welding, MIG Welding, etc. Other methods
include metal riveting where the
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metal is joined without the help of heat or by
adhesive agents facilitating the fusion of two
unlike metals.

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