If you are a consumer product designer, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with how precious sheet metal prototyping fabrication is. However, you might be still unsure regarding how sheet metals are manufactured or the ideal design practices for structures. Here are some things that you need to know regarding sheet metal prototyping prior to doing business with a fabrication shop:

Different processes

When it comes to sheet metal fabrication, the worker typically begins with flat metal pieces and transforms them into products or structures utilizing various fabrication processes like cutting, deformation, and assembly.

The cutting procedure

This procedure involves directing the sheet metal by producing cuts utilizing special machinery pieces, including water jet cutters, plasma cutters, and CNC laser cutters.

The deformation procedure

This sheet metal prototyping process depicts the procedure of altering the sheet metal’s shape by stretching, bending, and drawing. The procedure involves usage of specialized tools such as metal stamping presses and press brakes. The latter allows bending sheets into various shapes and angles whereas the former allows carrying out particular tasks like hemming, drawing, and embossing.

Assembly

This process illustrates the procedure of combining various sheet metal components utilizing fasteners or by means of welding. The latter is the more common process and you have a wide variety of techniques to select from; electron beam welding, arc welding.

If you wish to fabricate and assemble right-angle brackets, you need to create cuts and crucial features like holes on the sheet metal parts utilizing a laser cutter. You then need to place them between the die and punch of the press brake and turn till you get 90°. Ultimately, you need to fasten or weld the components together to take the desired custom metal fabrication prototype shape.

Verdict

You need to opt for high-quality sheet metal prototyping services with experience of at least 10-15 years in the industry. They should be capable of assisting you in creating cost-effective prototypes via a range of procedures, including prototype stamping, laser cutting, welding, and bending.