Metal Fabrication & Welding

Welding is only one operation done in fabrication

Metal fabrication is the design and assembly of products made from steel, aluminum, copper, brass or any number of metal alloys used in specific industries. Many types of manufacturers use fabricated metal parts in their products, from the food service industry to electronics, construction, defense contractors, aviation, automotive and machine builders. Integrating fabricated shapes into the product often requires welding, a method of using melted filler material to make a strong joint between two pieces of metal.

How Fabrication Begins

Metal parts, machines and structures begin with an engineering process during which the fabrication is designed according to engineering formulas to withstand stresses and do the job adequately. These designs are made into blueprints which are then sent to fabricators for bidding.

Working with Drawings

Once the price for fabrication is accepted, the fabrication company must make shop drawings if they are not provided by the client. These are distributed to the supervisors and workers in the fabrication shop to be used as they produce the product with whatever metalworking operations are required.

Metalworking Operations

Fabricating products out of raw metal materials may require any number of metalworking operations. Many different kinds of welding are available, such as resistance welding, arc welding, metal inert gas welding, tungsten inert gas-welding, laser welding and robot welding. The appropriate type of method used is determined by material, use and cost efficiency. Other operations may be used in the fabrication process including cutting, bending, chipping, shearing, spinning, forging, punching, brazing, soldering and spinning,

Finishing Operations

Various types of finishing operations may be required on a product, such as grinding, polishing, etching, anodizing, powder coating, galvanizing or plating.
Many of these operations must be send out to subcontractors and returned to the fabrication shop for final inspection and additional operations.

A Working Metal Fabrication Shop

There may be a number of skilled welders, sheet metal workers and machinists working in a metal fabrication business as well as supervisors, clerical personnel, purchasing staff and sales people. Depending on location, metal fabrication shops may have difficulty in finding skilled labor, and wages can vary widely from one region of the country to another. Experienced sheet metal workers can command up to $35 an hour, and welders can make up to $24 and hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because there is a great deal of large and dangerous equipment in any working metal fabrication shop, and because the work can be hazardous, safety practices figure prominently in any metal fabrication facility. Safety training is usually an ongoing and daily activity in the most successful metal fabrication shops throughout the country.

References

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: sheet metal workers
• ConcreteContractorMichiganIndiana.biz: steel fabrication
• TheFabricator.com: shop management metal fabrication