Sheet Metal Introduction
Up to now, sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking. Also, it is a machining method that is used for everyday applications. It is a thin, flat piece of metal formed during an industrial process, including cutting, punching, bending, welding, riveting, forming. Also, it is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes.
Process of Sheet Metal
Sheet metal is a grouping of many complementary processes that are used to form sheet metal parts. There are three major steps of the whole process of sheet metal working.
- Cutting
Cutting is the use of shearing forces to remove material from a work piece. There are several kinds of cutting forms such as waterjet, laser, oxygen cutting, plasma cutting etc.
- Bending
Bending is the forming of a sheet metal work about an axis. It can give strength to sheet metal
- Deep Drawing
Advantages of Sheet Metal
Sheet metal is flexible in the design options. It allows for more custom configurations. There are lots of metals which can be the materials that could make the products have different properties.
In the long term, metals are more cost-effective and cost-efficient in mass production. It is economical as it is affordable, high quality, and light. Besides, sheet metal creates durable surfaces and can be formed into various shapes that reduces the difficulty of manufacturing in a degree.
Why Use Sheet Metal
- It is suitable to low volume production.
- It is suitable to produce complex and complicated parts.
- In the limited budget, it constant changes making too expensive to continually change dies.
Materials of Sheet Metal
There is a wide variety of sheet metals used for fabrication. The common metals used in fabrication include:
- Stainless steels are popular for strength and durability.
- Aluminum is more lightweight and mostly good for lower temperature.
- Magnesium is mostly used as a structural metal with low density.
- Bronze has a low melting point.
- Brass is more corrosion resistant.