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The Fabricator August 2017
The Fabricator is North America's leading magazine for the metal forming and fabricating industry. The magazine delivers the news, technical articles, and case histories that enable fabricators to do their jobs more efficiently. The Fabricator has served the industry since 1970.
Technology Spotlight: The potential of self-driving vehicles in metal fabrication
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 17, 2017
- Materials Handling
- Article
Self-driving vehicles, combined with robot intelligence, could help drive efficiency on what remains a highly manual process in metal fabrication: moving parts from one process to another.
Technology Spotlight: Uncovering the “why” in equipment effectiveness
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 17, 2017
- Automation and Robotics
- Article
A factory may have thousands of sensors on the production floor, hundreds in the welding line, but all that data may not be very useful. Data analytics helps convert that data to specific information that people can act upon.
Press brake basics: Bending questions from around the globe
- By Steve Benson
- Aug 16, 2017
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Steve Benson goes global and answers bending questions from around the world—about plate bending in Australia, tonnage considerations in India, offset bending in Mexico, and grain direction variables in the U.S.
A symphony of metal fabrication
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 16, 2017
- Shop Management
- Article
Metal fabrication happens most effectively when people work together, though the nature of manufacturing throws up plenty of hurdles to effective communication. A smart shop layout can address this.
What sheet metal shops wish you knew: Hems, jogs, and forming tools
- By Gerald Davis
- Aug 16, 2017
- Shop Management
- Article
Columnist Gerald Davis continues a discussion of 3-D CAD and precision sheet metal manufacturing in Part IV of a four-part series. In this installment he focuses on the merits and demerits of hems, jogs, and forming tools.
Continuous improvement: From expediting to just another job
- By Jeff Sipes
- Aug 15, 2017
- Shop Management
- Article
What causes a custom fabricator to expedite jobs? How can a rush job be just another job? The trick is to develop processes robust enough to handle the unexpected.
The big challenge of wind energy component fabrication
- By Dan Davis
- Aug 15, 2017
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Plate rolling manufacturer DAVI hosted a wind energy seminar at its headquarters in Italy. Despite a renewed focus on fossil fuel, global wind energy initiatives aren’t blowing away—not by a long shot.
4 reasons that coil lines are not just for painting
- Aug 14, 2017
- Metals/Materials
- Article
Coil coating is usually associated with prepainted metals, which are often used in high-volume production environments such as cabinet manufacturing. That’s changing, however. Here are four reasons manufacturers should look to coil lines for more than just painting.
Plate rolling gets hot
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 11, 2017
- Bending and Forming
- Article
Why should one consider hot plate rolling? It usually boils down to two reasons: The material can’t be cold rolled at all and meet customer requirements (thanks to cracking or other defects), or the job exceeds a plate roll’s capacity for cold rolling.
Preparing structural steel surfaces for painting, coating standards
- By Kate Bachman
- Aug 10, 2017
- Cutting and Weld Prep
- Article
Mill scale, dirt, laser scale, rust, heat-treat scale, grease, and dust interfere with paint and coatings’ adhesion to structural steel and must be removed before steel members can be coated. What are structural steel fabricators doing about surface preparation, and what options are available? Surface preparation can run from simple chemical cleaning to abrasion methods such as grinding and abrasive blasting. Many fabricators’ projects come with surface specifications prescribed by The Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) standards
Better preps, better pipe welds
- By Dan Hernandez
- Aug 9, 2017
- Tube and Pipe Fabrication
- Article
Following specified pipe welding procedures and ensuring proper weld preparation can save significant time and money and ultimately improve productivity of the entire operation.
Trends in liquid industrial coatings
Metal fabricators that offer coating services probably think of themselves as fabricators first. However, they should realize that they need to be as well-versed in coating advancements as they do in fabricating technology improvements if they want to stay on top of overall production costs.
Lean and clean in waterjet cutting
- By Ben Callahan
- Aug 4, 2017
- Waterjet Cutting
- Article
Any fabricator that engages in waterjet cutting knows that it can be a challenge to keep the shop clean. As more shops become engaged in 5S practices and use the shop as a selling point to potential customers, they want to keep the water and abrasive in the tank. These tips can help do just that.
Hot rod origins, metal fabrication future
- By Tim Heston
- Aug 2, 2017
- Shop Management
- Article
Well beyond its hot-rod-shop origins, Ohio-based Stainless Works and its custom fabrication subsidiary MetalFab Group are moving into a new facility in November and are poised for double-digit growth over the next few years.
- Podcasting
- Podcast:
- The Fabricator Podcast
- Published:
- 04/30/2024
- Running Time:
- 53:00
Seth Feldman of Iowa-based Wertzbaugher Services joins The Fabricator Podcast to offer his take as a Gen Zer...
- Industry Events
Pipe and Tube Conference
- May 21 - 22, 2024
- Omaha, NE
World-Class Roll Forming Workshop
- June 5 - 6, 2024
- Louisville, KY
Advanced Laser Application Workshop
- June 25 - 27, 2024
- Novi, MI
Precision Press Brake Certificate Course
- July 31 - August 1, 2024
- Elgin,
- Upcoming Webcasts
Navigating Change: The Manufacturer’s Guide to Change Management with ERP Implementation
- May 16, 2024
- Sponsored
- Presented By: ECI Software Solutions, M1
Managing Dangerous Dusts from Metalworking
- June 26, 2024
- Sponsored
- Presented By: Camfil Air Pollution Control