Metal Forming
Metal Forming is a cost effective and innovative way to obtain a competitive advantage. Metal stamping and metal fabrication services are used in a plethora of industries. These include: aerospace, agricultural equipment, construction, medical equipment manufacturing, military, rail, and truck trailer manufacturing just to name a few.Metal Forming normally encompasses many different metal shaping operations such as metal stamping, roll forming, embossing, press braking, punching, notching, metal blanking, and shearing. Many different firms offer metal forming services. Understanding the different operations available in metal forming will only enable your firm to make a wise decision when it comes to metal forming.
Metal Stamping
Metal forming companies offer metal stamping services to original equipment manufacturers because they know it will give their client's a definitive advantage, from a competitive standpoint and a financial one. One thing to surely consider when choosing this service is whether or not the firm doing the stamping and forming will have to outsource the job because they do not possess the tooling. By selecting a metal forming company that can create its own tools if none exists, this can save your firm serious time.
Tools in Metal forming and stamping usually include permanent dies, fixtures, and jigs that are used in your metal production process. Any company that creates tools for your metal stamping and forming needs, will also store and maintain these tools for future use should the need for additional metal forming arise.
Metal Stamping presses should be able to press anywhere from 150-300 tons and should stamp steel and other metals up to a gauge of ¼ inch. The following are some metals that can be stamped and formed. They include: aluminum, brass, cold rolled steel, copper, galvanized steel, hot rolled steel, stainless steel, titanium, and zinc.
Other Metal Forming Services
There are other metal forming services available and most metal forming firms can perform these services. By properly understanding these techniques, one can have a better idea of the different metal forming services available. Roll forming is the bending of metal as it passes through a series of roller dies that shape the metal as desired. Embossing on the other hand is the metal forming process of using dies to change the look or pattern of metal without changing its thickness. Press Braking is a metal forming process that uses a single-action press to bend, notch, perforate, piece, or punch sheet metals and plates.
Some other remaining major metal forming services include punching, notching, blanking, and shearing. The punch is a part of the complete die assembly and is normally attached on the slide of the tool. Metal is then punched with this tool. Notching is related to this process in that the punch removes materials from the edge or corner of a strip of metal. Blanking is when large sheets of metal are cut into smaller pieces so that they can be stamped or formed into something else. This metal forming service is usually combined with metal piercing. One final metal forming process is metal shearing. This is usually the first step in preparing metals for stamping.