Sheet Metal Fabrication

Sheet metal is any metal that has been flattened into thin pieces. The thickness of sheet metal can vary widely though generally thin sheets are referred to as leaves or foils and very thick sheets are referred to as plates. Sheet metal fabrication is a type of manufacturing process that gives shape to a piece of sheet metal through deformation, resizing, cutting, bending, stretching or removing of material from the sheet.
Sheet metal is one of the primary raw materials utilized in metalworking. Countless everyday objects, from household appliances, AC ducts, automobile bodies, roofs to bridges have sheet metal as one of their major components. Different metals like brass, bronze, steel, aluminium, copper, titanium, nickel, tin etc can be beaten into sheets and reshaped into articles through sheet metal fabrication.
The process of fabricating sheet metals can be primarily categorized as cutting and forming. Through the process of fabrication, it is possible to create cut-outs and holes on metal sheets to create different 2D shapes. The sheet can also be deformed and bent several times at different angles to create complicated contours.
Cutting is the process of applying force to a piece of sheet metal so as to make the sheet break and separate. Pieces of the sheet can thus be removed or cut as desired. Cutting a piece of sheet metal requires the application of great shearing force to separate the individual pieces. This process is therefore often referred to as the shearing process.
Shearing force is applied on a sheet metal by applying two tools. One of these lies above the sheet and the other lies below the sheet. Fabrication is done by applying a quick downward strike by the upper tool on the sheet that breaks at the site of the impact.
Apart from shearing force, sheet metals are also cut by using heat or abrasive forces. Such fabrications use plasma systems, laser beams or abrasive water jets as the main cutting force.
Forming is a process of sheet metal fabrication in which the force is applied to deform the metal sheet without breaking it. Forming allows a sheet of metal to be stretched or bent into any desired shape. Forming a sheet metal involves the process of bending, roll forming, spinning, deep drawing and stretch forming.
Bending is fabricating the metal sheet by applying force so as to bend it at a particular angle in order to obtain a desired shape. Roll forming is the process of passing the metal sheet through several roll stations so as to bend it to the desired shape. In spinning fabrication, the sheet metal is rotated while a force is applied to one of its sides.
Deep drawing is anther process of fabricating metal sheets wherein a sheet is stretched into a desired shape by pushing it into a die cavity. Stretch forming is another way of fabricating a metal sheet in which the piece is bent and stretched simultaneously on a die to form desired structures.