Metal manufacturing is the process of forming metal parts or products from materials such as aluminum, steel, and copper. Benefits include cost savings, sustainability, and product customization.
The most common metal manufacturing processes are casting, machining, metal forming such as cold and hot working, powder metallurgy, welding, and additive manufacturing. These processes shape metal into parts or end products using raw materials like metallic ores.
Sheet metal is then cut and fabricated into various shapes from thin, flat pieces. Common materials used include stainless steel and aluminum in grades like 304. The sheet metal manufacturing process typically starts with selecting the material grade and thickness. Then the sheets are cut, formed, and assembled to create custom metal parts and products.
Roll Bending
Roll bending shapes sheet metal using a hydraulic press, brake and rollers. At moderate speeds, small part pressing runs 30-70 strokes/min. Some over 250 use servomechanical drives.
Fundamental Properties of Metals
Most periodic table elements are metals like iron, copper, silver, mercury, and gold. Metals extracted from ore have positive ions and metallic bonds. Steel combines iron and carbon.
There are four main stages in metal extraction: mining, smelting, alloying, and fabrication.
The sheet metal process has four stages:
- Melting
- Pouring
- Pickling
- Rolling and annealing
Metals like gold and silver exist naturally, while others, such as steel, combine materials synthetically.