Content tagged with "fabricating"
Results: 38
Article
February 24, 2009
Rapid Creek Cutters—The second time around
Pat Burrington, the man in the one-man shop, Inkom, Idaho-based Rapid Creek Cutters, believes that if you are thinking about a career in welding, you seriously should think about starting your own small business at some point in your life … "maybe not right out of the gate, but... Read more...
Article
January 13, 2009
'It's the economy, stupid'
The results are in and they are not surprising. An overwhelming majority of respondents to an annual survey of metal fabricators ranked the economy as their No. 1 business concern. For the past five years, the "Fabricating Update" e-newsletter has surveyed its subscribers about various... Read more...
Article
March 7, 2006
Are you preparing for the worker skills gap?
The pressure is on. Truly, finding and keeping skilled workers will become one of your greatest hurdles in running a successful business in the coming decade, if it isn't already. It's a double whammy: Not only are skilled workers hard to find, but in a leaner and meaner working... Read more...
Article
November 8, 2005
Say ye shibboleth!
"Say ye shibbo leth !"...
"Do you not hear me, traveler? ... Say ye shibbo leth ."
A look of surprise and terror crept over the traveler's face as the third syllable finished crossing his lips. A salty, warm liquid began bubbling up in the back of his throat—a sticky, thick, and crimson... Read more...
Article
August 9, 2005
Oversized V dies: the effects on bottom bending
Figure 1
Why are so many press brake and tooling manufacturers adamant that you cannot bottom-bend with their products?
One word: Liability!
It's so easy to upset* a ram or blow tooling if bottom bending is done incorrectly. So who can blame the manufacturer for... Read more...
Article
July 12, 2005
How one shop benefited from abrasive waterjet technology
Figure 1 Triplex Systems manufacturers this casting cleaning cabinet for the investment casting industry. Editor's Note: Dr. Olsen has authored several articles for thefabricator.com about abrasive wate jet cutting technology. These articles can be found in thefabricator.com's... Read more...
Article
June 14, 2005
Fatigue Failures
Figure 1 Fatigue is the progressive formation and propagation of cracks in a metal subjected to repeated or alternating stresses (from cyclic loads or forces) not exceeding the material's static yield strength limit. The final failure occurs when the remaining section—the part... Read more...
Article
June 14, 2005
The blades of Don Fogg—a cut above
This 11.375-in. blade was forged from 1095 steel; the habaki* is made from 40 percent shibuichi, gold-plated nickel silver seppa, and Damascus tsuba. *See glossary at the end of the article for swordsmithing terms. Photo courtesy of Don Fogg. What is it about forged and polished steel... Read more...
Article
May 10, 2005
It's all about tool selection -- or is it?
Figure 1
The radius gauge fits squarely into the bend.
Air forming, bottom bending, and coining are different forming methods that can be used to create various bends—sharp, radius, and profound-radius. Throw in a mix of operators and engineers with different... Read more...
Article
March 8, 2005
Anchor's a way down the road to improvement
Anchor Fabrication has a reputation for the ability to form long and awkward parts. A 1,200-ton, 52-ft. Pacific press brake in the Precision Division assists in reducing downtime and material handling costs because the parts no longer have to be shipped across the street for forming.... Read more...
Article
March 8, 2005
A good start makes a difference
Fig. 1 shows elevation of the entrance guide affects the sectional curvature. Fig. 2 shows an Edge Bent Down Model. In a roll forming line, the entrance guide serves to guide the metal strip into the roll former at the optimum angle and elevation. To achieve the correct feeding... Read more...
Article
February 8, 2005
FMA goes to China
The group had just spent 11 days last November traveling through Taiwan and China, visiting sheet metal stamping and fabricating operations, as well as the facilities of tour sponsors SEYI Presses and The TRUMPF Group. They had seen global PC brand logos applied to products in large... Read more...
Article
October 12, 2004
Prefinishing trends towards growth
Since its introduction in the 1960s, coated coil has become the raw material of choice for some industries, and its demand has increased steadily, according to the National Coil Coating Association (NCCA). Coated steel and aluminum coil is being used predominantly in the building industry... Read more...
Article
October 12, 2004
Optimizing consumable life in mechanized plasma cutting
Manufacturers of mechanized plasma cutting systems are focused on developing new technologies to meet three key market needs: Improved cut quality and consistency Increased cutting speeds and material thickness capabilities Increased consumable life Together, these three focus... Read more...
Article
July 13, 2004
Is your bend good enough?
You recently acquired a pipe bender to enhance your fabrication capabilities, received an order, procured the pipe stock your customer requested, and bent it as specified. Your customer rejected the first lot. He called and complained about a hump on the extrados, and he said something about it... Read more...
Article
July 13, 2004
Article
May 4, 2004
Designing for abrasive waterjet fabrication
Designers need to be familiar with some abrasive waterjet machining features to minimize overall cost. Some of these concepts also may apply to laser, plasma and oxyfuel cutting. Drafting Practices All projects begin with a design, which usually is prepared with a CAD program. Almost all... Read more...
Article
May 4, 2004
Pursuing a plate-cutting saw
Metal Cutting Service's custom-made saw has a built-in laser that aids setup. The nature of the company's business shifted substantially during the 1990s. To adjust to the changes, Viel recognized that the company would need to research, specify, and purchase a new saw. He also... Read more...
Article
April 6, 2004
New bends in the roll
Editor's Note: Allan Flamholz is now president and founder of Trilogy Machinery, Belcamp, Md., the U.S. distributor for ROUNDO in the U.S. as of July 2009. COMEQ Inc., White Marsh, Md., remains a source for roll bending equipment and expertise in rolling plate. Nothing is new about the... Read more...
Article
March 25, 2004
Competing in the global arena
Less than 40 seconds to go. The home team is down by 2 points. Tension grows as the clock counts down. The players and referees dart back and forth, and the action never slows. This isn't some staid, gentlemanly game like chess or golf. This is a full-contact sport, a sport in which the... Read more...
Article
November 20, 2003
Laser tube processing
Although many new applications are made possible by modern lasers, laser processing is not entirely new to tube production. Manufacturers have used lasers to cut tube and pipe since the late 1970s. At job shops most of this laser tube cutting was performed on flat sheet cutting laser... Read more...
Article
November 20, 2003
Improving bending operations
The company works with materials from 3 to 25 millimeters and produces parts that range from pallet size to 15,000-pound weldments measuring 8 by 12 by 3 feet. Part runs are low to moderate, from five to 500 pieces. The company classifies its parts as moderately complex with tight... Read more...
Article
September 25, 2003
How important is roll forming lubrication compatibility?
Plant Environment Let's begin with the plant environment. Environmental guidelines mandate safe handling and disposal of lubricants. You must determine if the various lubricants you are using are hazardous, requiring special controls and perhaps, a licensed waste hauler for proper... Read more...
Article
March 27, 2003
A different battlefield, the same strategy
The OODA Loop One strategy that has stood the test of time is the Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action (OODA) Loop. In this process, rivals observe their positions, the environment, and their opponents; orient themselves to the situation; decide on a course of action; and act.... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2003
The Age of Cautious Optimism
For most of my life I thought that cautious optimism was an oxymoron -- that people were either optimistic or pessimistic, and anyone who professed to be cautiously optimistic was sitting on the fence, waiting to see which way the wind blew, or, worse yet, really pessimistic and trying to... Read more...
Article
March 13, 2003
Special slitting for specialty metals
Object As this transition to more challenging environments occurs, an on-time supply of high-quality processed stainless steels and other specialty metals becomes vital to U.S. industry. Many steel suppliers that process carbon steel grades are being asked to slit more exotic and often more... Read more...
Article
February 27, 2003
Measuring Lubricants' Impact on Metal Formability
By looking at the relationship between metal formability and lubricant, we can make some significant discoveries. Both the metal and lubricant used influence the formability outcome. If the part requires a given N value of steel, but the lubricant fails to provide consistent metal flow over... Read more...
Article
November 7, 2002
Aluminum stands tall as a structural metal—Part 1
Exterior view of aluminum-framed structure Scienceland, Shanghai, China.
In appearance, aluminum sometimes is difficult to distinguish from other rust-free structural metals such as stainless steel, magnesium, and even galvanized steel. However, its properties are very different. Even... Read more...
Article
November 7, 2002
Focusing on tube cutting lasers
Object
It travels at 186,287.490 miles per second (299,792,458 meters per sec.). Its visible spectrum ranges from 400 to 700 nanometers. Its smallest unit is a packet of energy, a photon. While its chief use is illumination, it has many other commercial, industrial, and military... Read more...
Article
November 7, 2002
Fanning production rates
While a worker prepares to remove parts from a dual-pallet laser at Hartzell Fan, Piqua, Ohio, the machine is cutting the next job. The company was able to replace an older laser and a plasma cutter with this new machine. The space saved contributed to better flow of material from the... Read more...
Article
May 30, 2002
Bumping up large-radius bends
Figure 1
It often is impractical to buy or build a custom tool just for large-radius bends. Perhaps it is a one-of-a-kind part, or the radius that needs to be produced is too large to be done practically in a single punch and die set.
While rolling the bend in a... Read more...
Article
February 14, 2002
An industry perspective
On the positive side, job shops continue to be innovative and improve productivity; materials and software are improving; entry-level positions normally can be filled. On the down side, the author feels that supply chain management is partly responsible for the industry's recession. Inventory... Read more...
Article
October 11, 2001
Correcting shape problems in flat-rolled coil
Object Flattener Designs Flatteners can be spread-center or close-center machines (see Figures 1 and 2 ). The rolls on spread-center machines generally are separated by more than one roll diameter so that the top bank of rolls can pass down through the bottom bank of rolls. A close-center... Read more...
Article
August 16, 2001
Hydroforming with end feeding
Figure 1 Object Sections of tubular hydroformed components typically are developed to keep the section perimeter-the length of line —to within 2 and 5 percent of the tube's circumference in the central regions of the member. Near the ends, the section perimeter can be increased by... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
Analyzing shear features
Figure 1:
A guillotine shear has a moving blade that runs on straight slides. The moving blade is almost parallel to the fixed blade during the entire stroke.
Sheet metal and plate shearing machines are used in many fabricating and sheet metal operations. Before... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
How one company organized its powder coating process
In today's metal finishing industry, quality and efficiency are of equal value to the customer. Quality is important for obvious reasons; efficiency is desired because it keeps prices down and results in short lead-times for customers. The finishing process typically is the final... Read more...
Article
July 26, 2001
Bend deduction charts
In reviewing a couple dozen bend deduction charts from a variety of sources, I couldn't find any that agreed with another, with the exception of a single number here and there. For the most part, they varied widely. Figure 1 shows data from five of those charts selected at random.... Read more...
Article
May 15, 2001
Didn't find what you were looking for? Try our search page to refine your results
