The Sheet Metal Manufacturing Process
There are three basic steps to the metal sheet fabrication process, as follows.
- Cutting – First, the sheet metal must be cut into the proper shape and size for the component. In addition, any holes, openings or other surface details must also be cut into the metal. This can be done using lasers, plasma or water jet cutters, depending on your requirements.
- Shaping – Next, the metal is shaped through stamping or pressing, and molded into the proper overall shape. It may need to be trimmed and machined to remove excess material, in some cases.
- Welding – Depending on the component, it may be necessary to weld and join metals together, such as to create a metal enclosure for microwave or another such device.
In addition, some components may require other steps like further machining and surface finishing to ensure they have the required mechanical properties.