What are the different types of fabrication?

1. Cutting

Essentially all fabrication processes begin with cutting. Qualified fabricators use various tools for cutting raw materials, including:

- Saws
- Plasma torches
- Lasers
- Water jets
- Mill bits

The most common cutting method is known as shearing, although chiselling, torching, and numerical control methods are also popular.

Torching typically involves cutting with a handheld plasma or oxy-fuel torch, while numerical control cutting employs mill bits, lasers, torches, and water jets. For structural steel, a robot will move a plasma or laser cutter’s cutting head in three dimensions around the material to create the desired shape.

Shearing involves making a long cut on a piece of sheet metal. Fabricators might use alligator shears, bench shears, power shears, or a guillotine to make the cut.

2. Bending or forming

Bending involves manually or mechanically hammering flat sheet metal into a three-dimension part. There’s no need to add or remove material—it’s all about applying force to form the metal.

In modern settings, fabricators will use a press brake to air-bend or coin a metal sheet into the required shape.

Fabricators may also use a tool known as a tube bender to form tubing or pipes. Tube bending involves various procedures, such as form-bound and free-form bending. The process starts with the fabricator loading a tube or pipe into the tube bender and clamping it in place between two dies.

Then, using mechanical force, the fabricator will push the pipe or tube against a forming die, forcing it to conform to the die’s shape.

3. Welding

Welding is another popular fabrication process, sitting alongside cutting. Welding generally involves joining two pieces of metal, including panels, bars, and sheets.

Usually, a fabricator will weld by applying heat to the points where the two metal pieces should join. To assist this process, fabricators use various tools including welding magnets and clamps, which are useful for holding pieces in place.

4. Machining

Machining involves removing material from a metal block to create a certain shape. You’ll find a range of machining tools in today’s fabrication shops, including mills, drills, and metal lathes.

Lathes work by rotating a piece of metal against a tool designed to trim edges and corners, cutting the piece down to the required size and shape.

Fabricators create most solid metal components—like bolts, screws, and nuts—through machining.

Metal fabrication involves cutting, bending, and assembling metal to form machines, structures, and mechanical parts from raw materials. Today’s fabricators use various techniques to create their products, including welding, shearing, cutting, and folding.

For commercial, industrial, and residential steel fabrication in Coffs Harbour, get in touch with the team at Arc Attack Fabrication on 02 6654 2188 today.