Sheet metal fabrication is the easiest way of transforming thin sheets of metal into the metal components and appliances that we use in our day to day lives.
As technology advances and other manufacturing methods are becoming more common, you may be wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of sheet metal fabrication are and why it continues to be favoured by companies such as https://dkmsheetmetal.co.uk/.
Advantages of sheet metal fabrication
For medium to high volume production, it is hard to beat sheet metal fabrication on price as the process is endlessly repeatable and tooling only needs to be set up once to achieve a consistent result.
Sheet metal products are lightweight but strong as the bends imparted during the manufacturing process add rigidity without bulk. With the choice of steel, aluminium, copper and brass to work with, it is possible to select the most appropriate metal for the task without changing equipment.
Disadvantages of sheet metal fabrication
Sheet metal fabrication is best used for simple shapes of uniform thickness as creating a variable thickness product requires additional steps such as welding and finishing which add time and cost to the process, representing poor value for money. The machines used in sheet metal fabrication are also not designed to handle complex geometry so imparting undercuts, deep draws and 3D contours is best handled by a different process.
Sheet metal fabrication is not cost effective for small or bespoke runs as stamping dies are expensive and can take weeks to produce, meaning that design changes cannot easily be accommodated.
