Everything You Need to Know About Metal Fabrication

Metal fabrication is an age old industry. It has existed in some shape or form for several hundred years. For as long as humans have used metal, there have been professionals working on shaping and forging the metal into different tools and implements. From the crude technology of early humans, this art has evolved into the sophisticated process used by fabrication services in Boston today. Here’s a brief explanation of what’s involved in metal fabrication.

The Process Used

Metal is fabricated using different methods, depending on the kind of result you want to achieve and the metal that you’re working with. These methods are:

• Cutting – Pieces of metal are cut and shaped with the use of several tools. The tools used are usually saws, shears, torches, CNC cutters like laser cutters, water jets, etc. This is a great way to cut intricate designs and patterns into the metal and is often used in the fabrication industry.
• Bending – Bending has always been an essential technique used by metal fabricators to shape metal. This is usually done by hammering the metal or using press breaks. Most fabricators will use the press breaks to air-bend the material into the shape that they need.
• Joining – Metal pieces can be joined together in several different ways. In most cases, the metal is welded together. However, fabrication services in Massachusetts can also use adhesives, threaded fasteners, riveting, and other such techniques. All of the metal pieces would come together to form the final shape of the product after the joining is done.
• Finishing – Once joining is done, it’s time to finish the product. The type of finishing dictates the method used. The metal is usually sand blasted or sanded before the primer is applied to the surface, and it’s painted over.

Other Methods

There are several other ways in which the metal is shaped. The process mentioned above is usually adopted for normal metal fabrication and usually involves either sheet metal or rods. Shaping and finishing blocks of metal requires a process called machining. There are several fabrication services in Boston that would have a limited amount of machining abilities as well. The tools used here are usually lathes, mills, and drills. They work to remove excess material from metal blocks and shape solid pieces.

Fabrication services in Massachusetts is a complex industry and requires people with different skills and tools. Professionals in this field can cut and shape metal into shapes that can be easily used in various applications.