Precision Custom Sheet Metal Fabrication - China Sourcelink

As the global metal fabrication market continues to experience exponential growth in the past couple of years, demand for steel, aluminum, and other metal products in major industries are also expected to increase. China has been leading the world’s steel manufacturing industry with demands coming from industries like aircraft, automotive, and construction.

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Many of China’s importers come from the U.S. Industry-leading metal fabrication shops and companies like Ball Corporation, Flowserve Corporation, Gibraltar Industries, Mueller Industries, The Timken Company, and Valmont Industries all have manufacturing arms in China.

Formed by about 51,000 companies, the fabricated metal product manufacturing industry in the U.S. has about $338 billion in combined annual revenue last year. Companies in the U.S. and the rest of the world are expected to take advantage of China’s metal fabrication capabilities, skilled labor force, and favorable production costs moving forward.

What Is Metal Fabrication?

Metal fabrication is the creation of metal parts, structures, and machines from various raw materials by cutting, bending, and assembling process.

Metal fabrication is a crucial step in the manufacturing process. However, it is often a misunderstood trade. Most people think it is the same as welding fabrication, which is only one of the many methods fabrication shops use.

Most mass-produced fabricated metal items like cans, pipes, bolts, and cutlery have a wider tolerance for error. This means each product may vary in minute details from the original design but still acceptable and functional. On the one hand, there is the so-called custom metal fabrication sector where businesses specialize in custom products to fit a customer’s specifications.

Sheet Metal Fabrication

Sheet metal fabrication uses sheet metal to build structures and machines. Businesses specializing in sheet metal fabrication are often called fabrication shops, or fab shops for short. Some tools used in sheet metal fabrication may include a rolling machine, plasma machine, band saw, hydraulic brake, and sandblasting machine, among many others.

Precision Sheet Metal Fabrication

Precision sheet metal fabrication is the process of forming sheet metals into finished products. Medical, aerospace, automobile, electronics, and military industries all depend on precision sheet metal fabrication. Precision sheet metal fabrication relies heavily on computer technology to get the desired results, particularly CAD/CAM software to design and layout products and CNC machine to cut, drill, or lathe products to exact specifications.

Precision sheet metal fabrication subjects a sheet metal into annealing, bending, mechanical working, press forming, or roll forming to create the desired shape. To make that into a finished product, the shaped sheet metal goes through cutting, drilling, sawing, shearing, or stamping to achieve the finished product. Finishing processes of precision sheet metal fabrication include deburring, painting the product, or sanding. Some of the most common products of precision sheet metal fabrication include storage enclosures, mobile carts, tanks, and ventilation systems.

Sheet Metal Ductwork Fabrication

Sheet metal ductwork fabrication involves building ducts, usually for HVAC systems. Some tools to create sheet metal ducts include a plasma machine, lock former machine, hydraulic notching machine, power break machine, hand brake machine, and cleat former machine. Products of sheet metal ductwork fabrication include plenum boxes, drain pans, duct mate, straight ducts, grease ducts, and trunk ducts.

HVAC Sheet Metal Fabrication

HVAC sheet metal fabrication is a subcategory of precision sheet metal fabrication. It is imperative to meet all industry standards, particularly for industry ductwork. This is because ductwork may carry huge amounts of boiling or dusty air throughout the HVAC system. This air may reach temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (515 degrees Celsius). Having quality ductwork ensures that the air reaches its destination in the safest way possible.

Sheet Metal Duct Fabrication

Sheet metal duct fabrication for indoor air distribution use varying gauges. But mostly they are rectangular or circular in shape.

Custom Metal Fabrication

Custom metal fabrication often involves stock metal components, such as sheet metal, metal bars, metal billets, and metal rods, to create a new product. For instance, a metal billet may be fabricated into a curve metal tube by using extrusion and folding the tube.

Some of the most popular types of metal used in custom metal fabrication include steel, aluminum, brass, copper, and titanium. Depending on the product’s intended purpose, geometry, and materials, the custom metal fabrication process may include casting, cutting, folding, extrusion, forging, punching, machining, shearing, drawing, stamping, or welding.

Custom Sheet Metal Fabrication

Before a finished custom sheet metal fabrication product is handed over to the customer, it has to go through a series of sheet metal fabrication processes and tools, depending on the application it serves. The goal is to convert a metal sheet into a workable item.

The custom sheet metal fabrication process includes blanking, bending and forming, assembly, or finishing. Some tools used in custom sheet metal fabrication include a turret press, water jet cutting machine, folding machines, press brakes, stamping units, and fiber optic laser cutting machine.

Metal fabrication is too broad of a term that refers to any process involving cutting, shaping, and molding. There are so many processes involved in metal fabrication, and they vary in mechanism and tools to use.

But, at the end of the goal, the goal is the same—to produce parts or assemble components to make a finished product. To learn more about the processes in metal fabrication, here are 12 of the most common techniques used to fabricate a metal product.

Metal Cutting

Cutting is the most common metal fabrication process where sheets of metal are cut into smaller parts. In most applications, the metal being cut is freshly manufactured and has yet to be made into anything in particular. In other applications, pre-shaped metals like panels and bars are subjected to cutting. Some cutting machines include lasers and plasma torches, power scissors, waterjet cutting machines, and CNC machines, among others.

Metal Drawing

Drawing requires tensile force to pull metal into and through a tapered die. The die expands the metals into a thinner shape. The drawn metal can be heated to lessen the required force. The process is called deep drawing when the finished product has a depth that is equal to or greater than its radius. For instance, hollow cylindrical or box-shaped vessels drawn from a sheet of metal.

Metal Forging

Forging employs compressive force to shape metal and often achieved using a hammer or die. Forging is one of the oldest forms of metal fabrication which has been used for centuries. Metal forging can either be done at room temperature (cold forging), above room temperature to below the recrystallization temperature (warm forging) or above recrystallization temperature (hot forging).

Metal Extrusion

Extrusion uses force through and around an open or closed die to reduce the diameter of the metal piece to the cross-section of the die. When pressed around a die, the metal piece gets a cavity within. Extrusion uses a metal slug (billet) as the workpiece and a ram to strike it. The finished product is often used for wiring or piping. It can be long or short pieces.

Cold extrusion is done at room temperature, and it is often used for steel fabrication, including stainless steel fabrication. On the other hand, hot extrusion is done at high room temperature to prevent the metal from hardening. Hot extrusion is often used for copper fabrication.

Metal Machining

Machining is used to remove parts from a piece of metal. It is usually performed on a lathe. In other machining applications, a hole or set of holes are formed directly through the metal surface.

Machining can be done by drilling, turning, and milling. Drilling uses a rotary cutting tool called drill bit to punch a hole. Turning uses a lathe to rotate the metal while a cutting tool moves in a linear motion to remove metal along the diameter, making a cylindrical shape. Lastly, milling uses rotating multi-point cutting tools to remove materials from the workpiece until the desired shape is achieved.

Metal Punching

Punching creates holes in a workpiece by placing it under a die and punching it through using a drill. A CNC punch press is a common tool used here.

Metal Shearing

Shearing involves long cuts. In most applications, the sheet is loaded through a metal-cutting machine. In other applications, the sheet is cut using a cutting tool. Shearing is often applied to trim down the edges of a metal sheet.

Metal Stamping

Stamping is the process of making tiny humps protruding on the metal sheet. Like punching, it uses a die, except that the punching process does not penetrate to avoid making a hole. Metal stamping is often seen on coins.

Metal Casting

Casting is another ancient process of metal fabrication. It involves molten metal poured into a mold to form something. The most common metals used in casting include steel, iron, gold, copper, silver, and magnesium.

Techniques for metal fabrication vary in complexity with respect to the desired qualities of the finished product and the composition of the materials in use. Hardness, strength, conductivity, and resistance to corrosion are all commonly sought after qualities.

Through different methods in cutting, bending, and welding, these metals can be used in a multitude of products ranging from toys and appliances to larger structures like ductwork, furnaces, and heavy machinery.

Want more information on Custom Sheet Metal Fabrication Service? Feel free to contact us.

In this section, let us explore the different types of metal fabrication according to the materials used, including steel fabrication and aluminum fabrication.

Steel Fabrication

Steel fabrication involves the use of steel—an alloy of iron and carbon—and is the most common material used in metal fabrication. Its endless range of products includes construction materials, weaponry, and machinery.

Steel is most difficult to cut and so it requires a fairly extensive fabrication process. It is likely to corrode and can withstand 400 degrees Fahrenheit or more.

Steel fabrication has a lot of types according to the purpose. It could be structural steel fabrication, custom steel fabrication, custom stainless steel fabrication, commercial steel fabrication, and industrial steel fabrication.

Bronze Fabrication

Bronze is a copper alloy but stronger than copper and heavier than steel. Bronze fabricated products have a low melting point, so they are often used to manufacture coins, weapons, armor, cookware, and turbines.

Brass Fabrication

Brass is an alloy composed of zinc and copper. Some brass metal fabricated products include nuts, bolts, strips, pipe fitting, bed frames, door knobs, detectors, furniture trim, clock components, and musical instruments.

Depending on the purpose of metal fabrication, each process may need different equipment. Some metal fabrication equipment, though, can be used for a variety of functions, including welding machines, CNC machines, and saws.

A good fabrication shop, however, does not need all the metal fabrication tools in the world to successfully operate. It all boils down to specializations to know which machine is a must-have.

Here are some pieces of equipment used in metal fabrication:

Choosing between a local metal fabricator and a metal fabricator in China is not easy. Each camp has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, it all boils down to your personal requirements and preferences.

However, you need to take into account that mistakes can really be expensive in this industry. To help you decide, let’s look at local metal fabrication companies in Los Angeles and the United States as well as metal fabrication companies in China.

China Sourcelink is the industry-leading metal fabrication provider of precision components for various industries and applications. We offer metal fabrication services like cutting, drilling, CNC machining, punching, laser cutting, bending, welding, and sawing. We are based in Los Angeles with offshore capabilities in Shenzhen, China.

We can handle medium to large volume production requirements with a fast turnaround time of 2 to 4 weeks. Our facility in Shenzhen is ISO compliant so you can rest assured we fabricate metal products at the highest quality standard.

How Can China Sourcelink Help

China Sourcelink is a metal fabrication company based in Los Angeles, California with offshore contract manufacturing capabilities in China.

We are happy to serve your metal fabrication needs in Los Angeles, California and the surrounding areas:

Orange County | San Diego | Riverside | San Fernando Valley | Burbank | Southern California | California | Bay Area

Take care of your business, and we will take care of your outsourcing!
Call us at +1 213 716 (U.S.) or +86 (China).
Visit our Los Angeles office at 177 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, California.

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