Sheetmetal Fabrication

[passanthosh]

Hi,
I'm working on cost-reduction project. I like to know more on sheetmetal fabrication to analyze sequesnce of operation & to negotiate with vendors. Would any of advise me with reference meaterials, videos & slides etc.,

Thanks,
Santy

 

[Eltron]

I'd talk to my local sheet-metal shop first.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[drawoh]

passanthosh,

What kind of sheet metal work are you doing?

Get a copy of Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly by Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight. There is a section on sheet metal there. There is all sorts of other useful stuff.

As noted above, you definitely should talk to your vendors.

JHG

 

[KENAT]

You will be able to find resources like this one if you google enough.

http://www.precisionsheetmetal.com/home/technicalreference.htm

However, as both above say, I'd try and speak to whatever vendors you may actually end up using.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[berkshire]

passanthosh (Mechanical)

Rummage around on this site they have lots of goodies for sheetmetal wannabees,

http://search.sheetmetalworld.com/news/articles/197.cfm

B.E.

 

[Ron]

Try Architectural Sheet Metal Manual from SMACNA....

 

[ornerynorsk]

You're not going to get anything but basic stuff out of a book. Schedule a tour as a potential customer to several sheetmetal fab shops, as others have suggested. Eyes and ears open, don't be afraid to ask question, don't be afraid to pick up parts and look them over on the way through the shop. You'll learn more in 2 hours than in a month of book reading.

Sheetmetal assemblies can be complex, and quite precise. Do some reading on the British sten gun of WWII. Genius. And developed by people not afraid to take a chance and try something totally against the convention of the day.

You mentioned sequence of operations. This all depends on your part. There are so many operations that can be done, and it also depends on the capability and the equipment of the vendor.

 

[KENAT]

"There are so many operations that can be done, and it also depends on the capability and the equipment of the vendor. "

Exactly, that's why you probably want to try and find out what capabilities your likely vendors have, and if they can meet your functional needs.

If you need something your obvious vendors can't give you then you either need to find another vendor or find another way of 'skinning the cat'.

For instance, I fine tuned some vent holes on a low volume enclosure to suit our preferred vendors tooling. It was a case where functional requirements could be met in several ways and I was able to find an easy/cheap one.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[berkshire]

passanthosh (Mechanical)

drawoh (Mechanical) asked you what kind of sheet metal work you are doing.
You are not really going to get a sensible answer to your questions until you get more specific,and tell us what your line of work is.
That's why most of the posters are saying talk to your vendors because right now it is the only constructive answer we can give you.
B.E.

 

[Justolejim]

Running a sheet metal Shop is pretty much the same as any metal working plant
1 Engineer the product - Layout the piece you are working on to obtain the most economical cut of material - Check your inventory for something close not assigned to a project - Layout the lines of cut and Break or roll and them check it against your engineering - measure twice cut once - Take the unit to the break or roll and shape the piece - then check your engineering sketch for dimention s
and weld procedures - weld it up -
Have a good day

 

[karmoh]

Hi,
Below is a typical Sheetmetal Fabrication shop process list.
These are in a process order but not necessarily so
Each process may have several sub-processes


•Cad - Flat Pattern Development
•CNC Programming
•Pattern layout
•Manual Fabrication
•Guillotine
•Turret Punch
•Back-cut/Guillotine
•Power Press
•Deburr
•Drill/Tap/Csk
•Press Brake
•Roll/Form
•Insert Setting
•Spot-weld
•Welding
•Pretreatment
•Finishing
•Outwork
•Inspection/Q/A
•Re-work ;-)
•Dispatch/Stores