Australian and International Manufacturing

There are all sorts of techniques used in Australia today to form metal. Used in both fabrication and manufacturing arenas, some are highly advanced modern methods, while others have been in use since man first started to make things out of metal. The most common metal forming techniques you will find in Australian factories and workshops are listed below.

Bending

Simply applying pressure to one end of a section of metal while the other is fixed in position will allow a metalworker to bend it into the right shape. At its most basic, a fabricator may use a lever to bend a section of tubular metal that is held in a vice. Modern bending machines now use ultra-precise press brakes to form metal into bent sections with an incredible degree of control.

Cutting

Cutting a section of metal resizes it in the simplest way possible. Sometimes, all that is needed is to saw a workpiece so that it has the desired dimensions. These days, sheet metal is often cut into component-sized sections by lasers instead. In fact, CNC sheet metal fabrication is quite common these days, whereby computer-controlled cutters work repeatedly to cut metal to exact sizes without ever tiring.

Blanking

Blanking is a form of cutting. Rather than reducing a section of metal to the desired size, the process of blanking cuts the necessary shape from a larger section of metal. By blanking a sheet of metal, you can create all sorts of products with very little wastage.

Milling

When rotating cutters are used to shape a section of metal, it is usually referred to as milling. Milling consists of removing part of the material, sometimes to leave grooves or an ornate pattern. It is used for decoration but also for practical purposes.

Punching

A little like blanking, punching is often used on sheets of metal to form new shapes. Unlike blanking, which cuts sections of metal, the process of punching simply forces them out, just like using a pastry cutter to generate a shape from some dough.

Spinning

This process removes sections of metal when it is rotating, the opposite technique to milling. Spinning is usually used to form round sections of metal. A lathe is a tool that is often used to spin metal in a workshop.

Stamping

This process is not dissimilar to that of punching. The difference is that the die that is forced into the metal being worked on does not get pushed in with sufficient force to do anything other than leave a mark. It works a bit like embossing cardboard.