Pruning Metal Fabrication Costs for Better Returns: A Study

Metal fabrication is a type of business that most average people have no concept about. In fact, most people really don’t know where their metal products come from or where the metal even used to make the items they pick up each and every day originates from. However, if you work in the industry, you know the ins and outs and how detail-oriented you need to be if you work in metal fabrication. After all, there’s very little room for error when it comes to the fabrication process.

The inability to make errors also applies to the financial side of metal fabrication where it’s extremely important to make every penny count. When you’re in a tough business in a down economy, you need to do everything you can to maximize your return on investment (ROI). 

Reduce the Parts

One of the best things that you can do for a customer when you’re in the metal fabrication business to help them reduce cost and get a better return on their product is to look over their design and remove as many parts as possible. Remember – many of the people you’re working with many not be familiar with the metal fabrication business like you are and there may be extra parts included in the design that aren’t really needed. If you’re working with new companies or builders, these errors and extra parts could be greatly exaggerated. 

That’s why it’s important to go over any new design that you receive to make sure that it is functional and doesn’t involve too many extra part during the fabrication process. By removing parts during the fabrication process, you’re almost surely going to be able to reduce the cost of the item, helping you or the seller make more money with the final product. 

Alter the Design

Another major thing you can do for your customers, particularly those customers who are just now entering the fabrication process for the first time, is help them out with their design. In many cases, a customer will think that they have a very unique design or that they need a very unique design to do a basic task. Since you’re in the business, you may already know that they don’t need something as complicated as what they’re trying to do in their original design. 

Offering to help your customers in this manner can be a tricky slope to walk down. If they do want your help, you may be sucked into the design process, assuming that they will place a large order when they finally have the product that they want. For that reason, it’s often a much better idea to simply help customers who need a basic tweak on their design. 

You can persuade many people to redesign their product if you give them specific ways to do so and tell them how much money that they’ll be saving if they go your route. They may not choose to do so, but saving money is something that every savvy business owner and designer is going to want to do in order to improve their ROI. 

Opt for Cheaper Parts

If customers don’t want to change their design or the design simply doesn't need to be changed, one thing you may want to do in the metal fabrication business is to suggest more cost-effective parts and ways of doing things. In many cases, you could be cutting the cost of a particular item once fabricated by just a few percent. However, in the long run, a few percent can add up to quite a savings, especially if your customer is going to be ordering a large quantity of an item. 

You do still need to take into account the overall quality of the item though, at least when you are suggesting changes to make the product cheaper for the client. If it doesn't perform the way they want it to over time, you may be held accountable and you could lose the business. 

When implementing changes that will make a product less efficient, you need to make sure the customer is aware of these concerns and that the savings will be worth it to them in the end.

Biobased Fabric: Tailored for Metal Corrosion Inhibition

Metal corrosion inhibition does not have to be a tedious task thanks to Biopad. This is Cortec’s bio-based sustainable packaging that is intended to help prevent metal corrosion for a long period of time.  

So, why is Biopad the best? 

Biopad stands out as a flexible corrosion-inhibiting device that is constructed out of 100% bio-based non-woven materials that contain 66% bio-based contents. The product offers you up to two times as much inhibition as the case is for conventional VCI foams. In combination with the thin design, Biopad has a high concentration of VpCI thereby resulting in a decent material reduction of up to 94%. 

How does Biopad work? 

Placing the right size of Biopad into a package allows the metal items in context to be protected thereby leaving them ready for any sort of use. According to Cortec (product manufacturer), there is no coating removal or degreasing that is needed in this process. You just need to get the item out of the package and then put it into use. 

What sort of metals does Biopad protect? 

Biopad protects both ferrous and non-ferrous metals in addition to alloys like copper, carbon steels, brass, zinc, aluminum, silver and solder. It also pays to note that it’s free of any sort of nitrates and amines. It also contains no isocyanates. 

What major benefits do you stand to gain from the use of Biopad? 

Biopad is cost effective, adaptable and also easily applied. You just need to apply the right size of Biopad on the package and leave it intact. The metal will stay protected until that time when you want to use it. It’s worth noting that Biopad conforms to NACE standard TMO-2008 and RP0487-2000, MIL-I-22110C and is tested and certified for the intended purposes. The product is still RoHS compliant.

Humans and Machines: A Symbiotic Future

Contemporary pop and art culture has often portrayed the interactions between humans and robots as an inevitable escalation to machines taking over human societies.. However, is this fact or mere fiction?

Today’s robotic industry is making advances and soon, we are likely to see robots that are more personal. Technology is starting to interact with us in a more direct and individual manner.

The future of human and machine interaction is likely to be realized as robotics engineers test the insights of humans. A friendlier technology that is chattier could improve any device, whether it’s Siri or a driverless car. For instance, anyone would be able to interact with a robot without having to know how to program since it can follow how humans interact with each other.

Perhaps the biggest device beneficiaries of having more humanity in devices would be robot assistants that are designed to help the elderly with basic tasks like washing dishes. These robots are already in Japan and a few other countries, but are not always easy to get on with. Most people do not trust robots and it may require some time before human-robot trust grows.

Should a friendlier and chattier technology be realized, perhaps the most surprising feature would be the sense of randomness that the computers or devices would exhibit. Human behavior is unpredictable and a number of studies have shown that people tend to react to robots in unexpected ways. Generally, a majority of people would warm to machines as if they were real people-once they get used to them.

Finally, people tend to prefer robots that are more similar to them in nationality, gender, and age. Therefore, the success of future human-robot interaction will have to put into consideration the interests of the respective individuals that the robots are designed for.

Important Machines and Techniques for DIY Sheet Metal Fabricators

There are many methods of metal fabrication that are used by metal fabricators in the modern day. Steel plants might best exemplify these methods and techniques. However, it’s vital to try and understand what steel metal fabrication means and what it entails in essence. When you get to know what fabrication entails, you’ll be in a position to understand the tools and techniques that are used in the entire process.

Sheet metal fabrication ideally refers to the act of shaping, forming, and joining metals together for purposes of either building or repairing tangible parts. Metal shaping, forming, and joining are all basic processes of metal fabrication. They therefore employ varied techniques in order to achieve the desired results.

What does sheet metal shaping entail?

Metal forming and shaping is only able to change metals in four main ways. You can cut, bend, shrink and even stretch the metal to the desired shape. Below are some of the basic machines and tools that you can use in this process.

Bending metal

Form bending stands out as the simplest way through which you can bend metals. Just as the term implies, you’ll be bending metal over a shape or edge that is under the metal. A hammer will be of absolute necessity when doing this.

When doing metal brakes, you’ll be able to make clean and precise bends in metal. You will need a clamping tool in doing this so that the metal can produce the desired shape or form.

Cutting metal: What does it entail?

Hand shears are basic tools that you can use in cutting metal to the desired shapes and sizes. However, this is a manual process, but it is still effective regardless of the size of metal you are cutting. In fact, if you want to start a sheet metal fabrication business, shears are among the first tools you ought to purchase.

Also referred to as scissors, power shears are also good for you when you are cutting metal. The good thing with such tools is that they allow you to cut metal faster with less manual effort. There is a wide range of sheers that you’ll come across in the market ranging from electric sheers to pneumatic sheers.

Throatless sheers are also commonly used in metal cutting. These sheers are hand operated and normally come in the form of a hinged blade, which swings down and then cuts through metal. The major advantage of throatless sheers is that they do not waste metal when you are cutting. They are therefore useful when making many cuts of steel at the same time.

Angle grinders and plasma cutters are also quite effective when cutting metal. Although angle grinders are noisy and messy, they will still get the job done. Again, the plasma cutter is best suited for aggressive and powerful sheet metal cutting processes. If the plasma cutter is adjusted in the right manner, it’s able to cut through metal faster and with a high level of accuracy.

Shrinking metal: What tools and techniques are necessary?

For this, you can use a trucking metal or a shrinker. Trucking metal stands out as one of the earliest methods used in metal shrinking. Ideally, you’ll be bunching metals together and passing them between crevices so that they can form a desired shape. A hammer and a wooden stump will also be useful. A shrinker can be more precise than tucking metal, but it moves metal slowly.

Stretching metal: The must have

When it comes to stretching metal, there are also a few basic tools and techniques which are required. The hammer, dolly, stretcher, and the English wheel are definitely of great importance in such a case. The hammer and dolly stands out as the most basic way of stretching metal.

Metal fusion: The necessities

Lastly, metal fusion is also an important method of sheet metal fabrication. This entails fusing panels together in order to produce large complex parts. Perhaps the most common type of metal fusion today is welding. Welding includes oxy acetylene welding, TIG welding, and MIG welding. The MIG welder is probably the most common and and easiest form of welding in the modern day.