Consider the items around you that are made out of metal: the engine of your car, the shade over your desk lamp, your kitchen sink, or the fixtures in your bathroom. For all of these products, large and small, pieces of metal had to be produced, cut to size, shaped and assembled. If you have a project that requires custom metal parts and assembly, you may be in the market for a Metal Fabricating Company St. Paul MN.
The process of metal fabrication begins with a drawing or plan that indicates precise measurements for the parts desired. Then the raw material, such as metal sheeting or metal plates, is cut. Steel is the most common raw material in metal fabrication. Metal is cut in one of several methods. Cutting can be done by shearing, sawing or chiseling, using either manual or power tools, depending on the size of the project. Metal can also be cut with a hand held torch, like a plasma torch, or an automated cutter with a torch, laser bit, or water jet.
Once the metal is cut to size, it needs to be bent and shaped to the design specifications. One way of shaping metal is to hammer it, using either a manual or power tool. There are also automated machines that can roll metal into tubes or produce other shapes using punches or dies. The hydraulic press brake is a machine used in bending and shaping metal.
Now that the individual parts have been fabricated, they need to be assembled. This is most often done through welding, a process of joining metals together using very high heat to melt the edges and fuse them together. Other types of assembly include the use of adhesive materials, riveting, or bending the metal again to form a crimped seam. When the fabricated metal has cooled, it is then cleaned, primed, painted, and inspected before being delivered to the customer.
If you need a Metal Fabricating Company St. Paul MN to assist you with a project, you can check out Aerofab Inc. They have been in the business for more than 15 years.