Fabrication is the process of producing the parts needed to complete a project. It is the next step after making a sound and well-thought-of design. The goal of this process is to turn raw materials into specific parts of a project\’s design.

Fabrication is not the same as manufacturing. While it creates parts, manufacturing assembles those parts to form the final product. Several fabrication processes can be used in combination to achieve the desired outcome. In this piece, you will learn about six of the most common types of fabrication.

Different Types of Fabrication

Listed below are six of the most basic and common fabrication processes. The different types of fabrication include cutting, shearing, folding, punching, stamping, casting, and welding.

Cutting

Cutting is the most common and well-known type of fabrication. Cutting is turning your raw material into the shape you need for whatever you make.

Cutting is traditionally done by hand with a saw. However, it is more common to use plasma, laser, or water jet cutters to perform this process today.

Shearing

Shearing is similar to cutting. However, shearing utilizes two blades, like a pair of scissors, to cut raw material. It is a fabrication process that achieves long cuts on a piece of sheet metal.

Folding

Folding is creating bends on a workpiece, which is usually sheet metal. These bends are precise angles required for your project\’s design. You can either manually hammer in the bends or use a folding machine.

Punching and Stamping

The process of making holes in your workpiece is called “punching.” On the other hand, the process of making dimples or dents on your workpiece is called stamping.

The output of the punching process can either be either the hole created in the metal or the punched-out shape of the raw material. As with the other techniques, you can opt to punch small holes manually or use a machine if the purpose is for larger operations and mass production.

The stamping process can be done using a handheld mallet or a press. Stamping is generally done on sheet metal. Stamping can indent different letters, shapes, or images onto sheet metal.

Casting

Casting requires a pre-made mould and molten metal. In casting, the molten metal is poured into the mould. You can produce unique shapes in one solid form with the casting process.

Different casting types include investment, die, sand casting, and many more. The various types of casting serve other purposes.

Welding

In layman\’s terms, welding is joining separate pieces of metal together. Like casting, there are numerous types of welding, such as MIG, TIG, stick, and flux-cored arc welding, to name a few.

Conclusion

With the combination of these fabrication processes, you can expect to achieve your desired project outcome. In addition, knowing these basic fabrication processes can help you better understand what you need for your project.

However, processes like welding and casting will require proper training to ensure that they are done safely and correctly. Therefore, if you are inexperienced, it\’s best to outsource these fabrication services to professionals.