Category: Machine Tools

Ask any metal fabrication shop owner what the first two machines they purchased were, and often the answer will be “a shear and an ironworker.” Shears are important for cutting down sheet metal to size, while ironworkers offer a wide range of functions like punching, notching, and profile shearing. A person or machine that is […]

Those new to the art of metal fabrication are often surprised to learn that like a piece of wood, a piece of metal is also arranged in grains. And, as in woodworking, the grain structure in metals play a critical role in determining their properties and, consequently, their behavior while being shaped.

Metal grains are small, randomly oriented crystals that make up the polycrystalline structure of most metals. Understanding how grain structure affects metal fabrication is essential for everyone from senior engineers and materials scientists down to beginner press brake operators to be able to optimize fabrication processes and produce components with the right properties.

Precision, versatility, and efficiency are key attributes needed by any business wanting to be competitive in the metal fabrication industry. In the plate rolling sector specifically, advancements in technology have transformed the hand-crank machines of yesteryear into hydraulic marvels that can build sections of space rockets with accuracies unheard of less than a decade ago. […]