The very core of industry relies on the backs of metal fabrication companies.
Without them, we lose the ability of thousands of industries to operate as they do.
Even knowing this, what does metal fabrication mean? What do these companies do?
The answer is long and complex, but here are the basics.
Understanding Metal Fabrication Companies
It is always a good idea to know what you are buying before you buy it. Someone may tell you; you need a metal fabrication company. If you don’t know what they do, how do you know if that is the right idea?
What is metal fabrication? It is the entire process of taking raw metal materials and crafting them into useful objects.
The process includes smelting of metals, manufacturing alloys, and superalloys, and crafting these materials in the appropriate shapes.
The process has dozens of extra steps and techniques to get from raw materials to the machinery you need. Here are some of the more major ones.
Fabrication Techniques
These techniques are some of the most common you might request from a metal fabrication company. They are the foundation of altering raw materials to usable parts.
1. Cutting
Cutting is a simple action. When you deal with metal, a simple knife will not do. Working with metal requires precision and powerful tools.
A plasma torch is a standard tool for cutting through metal. The plasma torch can reach temperatures of over 45,000 degrees.
Other standard tools range from high power lasers to pressurized jets of water. Each of these tools can slice through metal with ease.
Cutting metal can be a dangerous process. This is why it is best to hire on professionals to do such tasks.
2. Bending
Bending metal into the perfect exact shape needs powerful, but accurate, tools.
Many machines need cylinders or curved pieces. You can’t hammer a piece of steel by hand and maintain that the precise curves and surface that the machine needs.
A key to metal bending is press brakes. These simple machines press the sheet metal between a wedge and a similarly shaped gap. This forces the metal to bend to the precise shape of the gap.
There are many other techniques. All of them based on a variety of bends and curves. A good machine metal fabricator can do any number of shapes as needed.
3. Welding
Sometimes you don’t need to alter one piece of metal but instead combine many parts together.
Welding is the act of superheating metal pieces along the connecting edges to melt them together. Done well, this creates a strong bond with minimal deformities.
Welding techniques range from handheld devices to large computer-driven machines.
Two common processes are MIG and TIG welding. MIG welding uses a continuous feed of energy through a single wire. TIG welding instead uses a tungsten electrode to produce the weld, using an inert gas like argon to protect the weld.
Fit It All Together
Metal fabrication companies put a lot of training and technology behind their process. The best in the industry have experts in their field and a refined process.
No matter what you might need, a good fabricator has you covered. Your business needs quality results, and we at Kor-Pak will lead you there every time.