Metal fabrication
Metal fabrication is the manufacture of products from metal stock through operations such as cutting, bending, forming, and assembly.
Sheet metal forming: Processes that reshape sheet metal by bending, stretching, or drawing without removing most of its material. It covers the shaping operations used to make enclosures, panels, and structural parts.
Sheet metal: Metal formed into thin, flat pieces, commonly supplied in coils or cut sheets. It is a widely used starting material for enclosures, panels, ductwork, and brackets.
Structural steelwork: The fabrication and erection of steel components that form load-bearing building and infrastructure frames. It is a major application in which cut, drilled, and joined members become structural systems.
Casting: A manufacturing process in which liquid material solidifies inside a mold to form a desired shape. Casting creates shapes by solidification, unlike fabrication from pre-existing metal stock.
Laser cutting: A cutting process that uses a focused laser beam to melt, burn, or vaporize material along a programmed path. It produces precise profiles from sheet and plate before parts are bent or assembled.
Structural steel: Steel sections and plates designed to carry loads in buildings, bridges, and other structures. Fabricators cut, drill, and connect these standardized members into load-bearing assemblies.
Shipbuilding: The design and construction of ships, including their hulls, decks, machinery, and onboard systems. Shipyards use large-scale metal fabrication to build and assemble hull sections and equipment.
Forging: A process that shapes metal through compressive forces, usually while the metal is solid and often heated. Forging forms bulk metal under pressure rather than assembling cut stock into a product.
Press brake: A machine that bends sheet or plate metal by pressing it between a punch and a die. It makes controlled bends in fabricated parts, often after flat patterns are cut.
Engineering drawing: A technical representation that specifies an object's geometry, dimensions, materials, and manufacturing requirements. Fabrication drawings communicate the geometry and requirements that shops must produce.