Metal Fabrication
Napa Valley, San Francisco North Bay, Ca. USA

 the building of machines , structures, process equipment for chemical, fertilizer sector by cutting, shaping and assembling components made from raw materials. Small businesses that specialize in metal are called fab shops.

Steel fabrication shops and machine shops have overlapping capabilities, but fabrication shops generally concentrate on the metal preparation, welding and assembly aspect while the machine shop is more concerned with the machining of parts.

Metal fabrication is a value added process that involves the construction of machines and structures from various raw materials. A fab shop will bid on a job, usually based on the engineering drawings, and if awarded the contract will build the product.

Fabrication shops are employed by contractors, OEM's and VAR's. Typical projects include; loose parts, structural frames for buildings and heavy equipment, and hand railings and stairs for buildings.

Planning

Once awarded the bid, the shop will begin planning the job. Purchasing agents will order materials and sub-contract out work to other shops if specialized fabrication equipment is needed.


Engineering

The fabricator may employ or contract out steel detailers to prepare shop drawings, if not provided by the customer, which the fabricating shop will use for manufacturing. Manufacturing engineers will program CNC machines as needed.


Raw materials

Standard raw materials used by metal fabricators are;

plate metal

formed and expanded metal
tube stock, CDSM
square stock
sectional metals (I beams, W beams, C-channel...)
welding wire
hardware
castings
fittings

Cutting and burning

The raw material has to be cut to size. This is done with a variety of tools;

Special band saws designed for cutting metal have hardened blades and a feed mechanism for even cutting. Abrasive cut-off saws, also known as chop saws, are similar to miter saws but with a steel cutting abrasive disk. Cutting torches can cut very large sections of steel with little effort.

 

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