Metal Fabrication – Understanding The Basics

Any company whether they be in construction, manufacturing, or design will recognise the real value of an experienced metal fabricator and as such, just like when you find a great restaurant, you’ll want to keep using it time and time again.

The truth is that without metal fabricators many companies wouldn’t be able to carry out their business. For example, architects wouldn’t be able to design modern buildings, engineers certainly wouldn’t be able to construct them, and manufacturers probably wouldn’t have the bespoke machinery necessary to be able to turn out their products. With this in mind, what exactly is metal fabrication and why is it so important?

Firstly metal fabrication is the ability to create metal parts, machinery, and components from scratch using a number of processes such as casting, forming, cutting, rolling, welding, grinding, and milling. Once cast and formed, raw metal is turned into a huge variety of items, tools, and component parts, in fields as diverse as the automotive, electrical, technological, and food and beverage industries. In fact you probably don’t have to look very hard to see a product that’s been made using the metal fabrication process. From the steel fencing or gates on your property to the computer or desk in your office area, metal fabrication is everywhere.

Types of fabrication

Fabricated metal can be purchased straight off the shelf in certain lengths of sizes as in metal posts and beams, metal sheets, metal wire, or standardised metal fittings. These types of product are mainly used in the construction industry to build everything from contemporary housing to skyscrapers. Metal fabrication can also be bespoke whereby a plan is drawn up of the client’s exacting needs and then the product is made to those exacting specifications. This is true of specialist machine parts that carry out a specific task within the manufacturing industry. Finally there’s decorative fabrication. This is for products like gates, stair cases, and metal screening where intricate metal shapes are bent and welded together to form highly decorative but equally functional one-off pieces.

Areas of fabrication

Fabricators may specialise in one particular area of their industry or may well cover all areas of metal work. However most fabrication companies find themselves dealing with a wide variety of different projects all with varying deadlines. As many products have to be designed for specific tasks, or to take on certain roles, the need to understand the metal they are working with and it’s strengths and weaknesses are paramount. For instance a client may come to them with specific instructions for a metal product to carry out a certain task. However the fabricator who knows their stuff might suggest that this isn’t possible with one particular metal and will suggest a better alternative, so they can also act as advisers to construction engineers, manufacturers, and architects too.

As you can see, there’s more to metal fabrication than meets the eye, but one thing’s for sure, when you’ve found a good fabrication company you could say that you’ve struck pure gold!

If you would like to talk to us about your metal fabrication project then you can call us on 07 3204 1000 and we’ll put plans in place to make it happen. Whether it’s an important piece of machinery, a highly-decorative but functional staircase, or even an entire mezzanine floor to give you more storage then one call to us is all it takes.