Start flat. Cut, bend, join, finish.
Sheet metal fabrication converts flat metal stock into brackets, panels, enclosures, frames, housings, cabinets, covers, chassis, and assemblies through cutting, forming, joining, and finishing.
A fabricated part may pass through several different processes.
Laser Cutting
Programmed cutting creates profiles, holes, slots, and internal features from flat sheet or plate.
Turret Punching
Punch tooling can create holes, slots, formed features, and repeated geometry efficiently in sheet stock.
Press Brake Bending
Punches and dies bend flat sheet along controlled lines to create flanges, channels, boxes, and structural forms.
Welding
Separate fabricated components can be permanently joined into frames, housings, structures, and assemblies.
Hardware Installation
Threaded inserts, studs, nuts, standoffs, rivets, and other hardware can be installed after forming.
Surface Finishing
Powder coating, painting, plating, polishing, brushing, and other finishes can protect or improve appearance.
The flat pattern and the finished geometry have to agree.
Material thickness, tooling, alloy, and bend method influence the achievable inside bend radius.
The developed flat length must account for how material stretches and compresses through the bend.
Features too close to bend lines or edges may distort during forming.
Closely spaced flanges, deep boxes, and return bends can interfere with press brake tooling.
Heat input, joint design, weld sequence, fixturing, and material thickness influence assembly distortion.
A tolerance can cross several fabrication operations.
Dimensions on a finished assembly may depend on cutting accuracy, bend position, bend angle, springback, hardware installation, weld distortion, and final inspection.
Fabrication behavior changes with alloy, temper, thickness, and finish.
Carbon Steel
Common for brackets, frames, cabinets, enclosures, equipment structures, and welded fabrications.
02Stainless Steel
Used where corrosion resistance, appearance, cleaning, or environmental durability is important.
03Aluminum
Provides lower density and corrosion resistance for panels, housings, frames, enclosures, and fabricated products.
Need repeated sheet-metal parts at higher production volumes?
Metal stamping uses dedicated dies and press equipment to produce formed sheet-metal components efficiently at recurring quantities.
Explore Metal Stamping →