Metal fabrication in Racine Wisconsin is a value added process that involves the construction of machines and structures from various raw materials. A fab shop will bid on a job, usually based on the engineering drawings, and if awarded the contract will build the product.
Fabrication shops are employed by contractors, OEM’s and VAR’s. Typical projects include; loose parts, structural frames for buildings and heavy equipment, and hand railings and stairs for buildings. Canaan Industries’ metal fabrication is based in Racine Wisconsin.
METAL FABRICATION SERVICES
The fabricated metal products industry comprises facilities that generally perform two functions: forming metal shapes and performing metal finishing operations, including surface preparation. Metal Fabrication services in Racine Wisconsin may include fabricate ferrous and nonferrous metal products and perform electroplating, plating, polishing, anodizing, coloring, and coating operations on metals.
METAL FABRICATION MATERIALS
Standard raw materials used by metal fabricators are;
Standard raw materials used by metal fabricators are;
- plate metal
- formed and expanded metal
- tube stock, CDSM
- square stock
- sectional metals (I beams, W beams, C-channel…)
- welding wire
- hardware
- castings
- fittings
METAL FABRICATION PROCESSES
“Once molten metal (ferrous or nonferrous) containing the correct metallurgical properties has been produced, it is cast into a form that can enter various shaping processes. In general, the metal may be heat treated or remain cold. Heat treating is the modification of the physical properties of a workpiece through the application of controlled heating and cooling cycles. Cold metal is formed by applying direct physical pressure to the metal.
Regardless of the forming method used, the metal fabricating process usually employs the use of cutting oils (e.g., ethylene glycol), degreasing and cleaning solvents, acids, alkalis, and heavy metals. The oils are typically used when forming and cutting the metal. The solvents (e.g., trichloroethane, methyl ethyl ketone), alkalines, and acids (e.g., hydrochloric, sulfuric) are used to clean the surface of the metals. The current trend in the industry is to use aqueous non-VOCs to clean the metals, whenever possible.
Once molten metal is formed into a workable shape, shearing and forming operations are usually performed. Shearing operations cut materials into a desired shape and size, while forming operations bend or conform materials into specific shapes. Cutting or shearing operations include punching, piercing, blanking, cutoff, parting, shearing, and trimming. Basically, these operations produce holes or openings, or produce blanks or parts.
Forming operations, shape parts by bending, forming, extruding, drawing, rolling, spinning, coining, and forging the metal into a specific configuration. Bending is the simplest forming operation; the part is simply bent to a specific angle or shape. Other types of forming operations produces both two- and three-dimensional shapes.”
Resource material drawn from Wikipedi and EPA