Metal Fabrication
Metal Fabrication in Los Angeles– Everything you need to know and More!
Creating a machine is a difficult task but via metal fabrication, it’s easier than most think. Metal Fabrication takes account of raw materials, it uses them as a form of input and creates complex structures and machinery. The process ranges from cutting and bending to assembling the raw metal materials, it’s commonly referred to as “value-added processes” and not without reason. With the use of metal fabrication, not only can complex mechanical structures be built but value can be added to certain stages of production. The Metal Fabrication aficionados or the companies that have specialized in the field are labeled under “Fab shops.”
Los Angeles based Fab shops
What’s more, is fab shops add additional value adding processes to their initial offerings. A facility being the specialist in multiple fields like welding, forming, cutting and machining eliminates the need for the customer to seek services of multiple vendors that specialize in that given field. Metal fabricators, when it comes to working, do not discriminate, they offer their services to contractors, resellers and even equipment manufacturers and their services aren’t limited in any way either, they perform a variety of tasks, some of them being;
• Reading and interpreting engineers’ layouts, drawings, and blueprints.
• Installing hand railings or stairs
• Creating structural frames for buildings and equipment.
Fabricating, Cutting, and Bending Metals
Metal Fabrication is closely linked to Structural Steel Fabrication, Welding and Metal Fabrication, & Aluminum Fabrication. Metal fabrication is comparatively a more complex process than the antediluvian processes and hence the tools being used vary
significantly as well. Abrasives, Adjustable wrench, Benders, Chipping hammers, Consumable electrodes, Cylinders with custom carts, Electrode holders, Hand file, Soapstone, Tungsten inert gas (TIG) consumables, Vice and vice grips, welding clamps are some of the tools the fab shops make use of.
The entire Custom Metal Fabrication process can be classified into the categories of cutting, bending and not to forget, assembling. The process isn’t what you should be worried about, just sign a contract and let the professionals do their work. With the metal fabricators contracted, they move on to the next stage of planning and structuring the entire process. In more details, this process includes the selection of the basic input i.e. raw materials. The selection process consists of ordering the right materials and having a manufacturing engineer program CNC machines for the project. Raw materials are available in many shapes, sizes and forms and some of them used for the fabrication process are stated as below:
• Plate metal
• Pre-formed metal
• welding rods
• Expanded metal
• Welding wire
• Equipment for fittings
• Equipment for castings.
The Process in a Nutshell:
Once the raw materials are available, they are cut into sizable portions so they can be used. Cutting raw materials is most commonly done via shearing a famous process frequently referred to as die cutting metal work.
Nothing much can be accomplished with just a mere flat sheet of metal and that is where forming comes in. The forming process enables to a sheet of metal to be transformed into a three-dimensional structure. Machinery is used to direct the shape of the metal and to regulate the magnitude of force being applied.
Machining and welding, the fundamental step of removing unwanted materials and assembling the metallic structure. Re-checks are frequently done to check the accuracy and then the assembly process begins. Click here to check out our other various mobile welding services.