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Sheet metal boxes produced in Hampshire UK

Thursday, May 8th, 2014

Sheet metal boxes produced in Hampshire UK

These small sheet metal boxes show so many manufacturing techniques that we need to use to produce a sheet metal box.

Sheet metal boxes manufactured in Hampshire

These small boxes have been CNC punched with all the holes and outer profile produced on out Trumpf CNc punch presses in Hampshire UK. You can see that we have punched into the side walls of the boxes a knock out feature for the final customer to push out if an electrical cable access is needed. The boxes were de-burred and then folded up on one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. The box has 4 M4 hank bushes inserted into the side wall as fixing points for the lid. The tight corner joints were then TiG welded together and finally cleaned off smooth before powder coating.

Mild steel sheet metal boxes like these are typical of the smaller sheet metal work projects that we specialise in here at V and F Sheet Metal and can be seen manufacturing every day of the week. There is a great web page on the site showing all the stages of manufacturing a sheet metal box fabrication from the CNC programming right through all the manufacturing stages, just follow the link for more details.

CNC punching sheet metal panels

Monday, May 5th, 2014

CNC punching with CNC punch presses used to produce sheet metal panels

With so much CNC punching coming from our 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses there’s always plenty of items to talk about in our blog. These parts are just typical of the sheet metal work going through our factory on any day.

All these parts have been produce from sheets of metal in either a 2M x 1M or 2.5M x 1.25M format. The parts have been CNC programmed using Radan sheet metal CAD/CAM software to enable us to create the correct part size and shape from a 3D model, tool them up from a large standard library of CNC punching tools and get the best fit from any standard sheet or off cut of metal.

For more information on CNC punching at V and F Sheet Metal please take a look at our plant page on Trumpf 200 and Trumpf 3000 CNC punch presses.

For an in depth look at CNC programming of sheet metal components using Radan sheet metal CAD/CAM software please follow the link.

And finally if you want to know more about the techniques used in CNC punching please read “What is CNC punching?“

Sheet metal projects May 2014

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

Formed aluminium covers

Curved forms can be achieved in sheet metal by rolling, forming with the correct sized curved form tool in a press or using a multi bend technique to simulate the curve circumference with straight sections at a tangent to the curve. These small aluminium covers were formed up by rolling as they were only a small batch. We have the ability to move from one type of forming to another depending on the volumes involved in each project and even over time if volumes improve often adapting tools we have to suit with custom made sleeves.

Folded aluminium brackets

Here are some small aluminium support brackets for tiny LED light fittings made in a batch of approximately 100 off. The parts were 3D modelled in Radan sheet metal CAD/CAM software, CNC programmed for one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses, punched out, de-burred and bent up in 3 working days. They still have on the protective white plastic film at this stage to keep the outer faces free from being scratched as they will eventually be silver anodised for a decorative finish.

Punched brass washers

We don’t manufacture that much in brass so these small brass washers immediately caught my eye on our goods out inspection bench. They have simply been CNC punched out and then barrel de-burred to remove any sharp edges. We make a range of these washers in several gauges and diameters. If we don’t have the exact tooling as standard on our CNC punch presses and there are only small batch sizes we can always laser cut them with our Trumpf 3030 fibre laser which can happily cut brass and copper sheet up to 6mm thick.

Inserting fastenings in sheet metal

Monday, April 28th, 2014

Haeger bush inserter with aluminium panel

Our bush and stud inserting machine, a Haeger Serter-bush 618-1H, is not the most noticeable piece of plant within our workshop. It’s quiet, takes up little room and just gets on with the job, that is inserting bushes, studs, stand offs and any other plain pins, captive screws etc. From the smallest clip or bracket to large display panels the Harger bush inserter just does the job. Tooling can be changed easily from one size bush to another within minutes and we have a range of holders to enable us to get into tricky shaped sheet metal housings, channels, chassis etc. The photo here shows us inserting stand offs into an aluminium display panel being supported on stands to maintain a level surface to prevent the outer face from being damaged.

Haeger bush inserter with aluminium panel

The tooling for the Haeger bush inserter is relatively simple, consisting of a upper punch and a supporting under die plate. The range of tools can be used to cover different types of insert, size of insert and the relative difficulty of accessing the insert within the sheet metal component. The machine can provide up to 9 tons on insert force which is enough for most of the inserts that we have to deal with. Any that are large such as M10 stainless steel bushes we can insert in one of our other presses but this is the exception to the rule.

Bushes, studs and captive screws

When we are inserting fixings into sheet metal they normally consist of male and female threads. Here is a typical selection of sheet metal fastenings that we would use on sheet metal projects. You can see anchor rivet bushes with female threads, self clinch stand offs, self clinch studs and self clinch captive screws. From the slight colour differences you can see that some parts are mild steel and zinc plated while other are made from stainless steel, the captive screw colour being stainless steel. You can also get some fastenings in aluminium and some stainless steel parts in a hardened material designed especially to insert into stainless steel sheet.

Sheet metal aluminium component tray with self clinch studs inserted from the other side. The flush head design of these studs allow them to be completed pressed into the sheet thickness without sticking above the surface.

If you have a sheet metal work project that needs bushes or studs and you are now sure what to specify please give us a call on 01489 577786 and we will be happy to help you pick the right part for the job.

Sheet metal bending

Friday, April 25th, 2014

Snap shot of the sheet metal bending projects that have been manufactured during April 2014

We use Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes for our smaller sheet metal work bending jobs (up to 1M long), for more information please follw the link.

For more information on the sheet metal work projects that we can help you with please give us a call on 01489 577786 or emails us your drawings on sales@vandf.co.uk

Sheet metal components …

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014

Sheet metal components manufactured in April 2014

Whenever I wander around our factory in Fareham, Hampshire I see sheet metal work projects that take my eye. Here we have 3 typical projects that we have manufactured in April 2014. Whether the parts are CNC punched or laser cut they can be folded on one of our 6 CNC press brakes. We take on projects from samples for new sheet metal designs, small repeating batches of parts right up to regular volume production an kanban call offs. Please take a look at past blog posts and our sheet metal gallery pages to see the range of parts that we manufacture for our customers in the UK and Europe.

If you have a sheet metal project that you want us to take a look at please just call us on 01489 577786 or send an email with your drawings to sales@vandf.co.uk

Laser cutting mild steel chassis components

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Laser cutting mild steel

Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser cutter cutting mild steel light fitting chassis gear trays, look below for the laser cutting program and final parts.

Fast Tube by Casper

Laser cutting control of nest

The information needed to drive the laser cutting head over the metal sheet surface is all produced away from the laser cutting machine. We use Radan sheet metal software to draft out each part to the correct size with all its internal and external profile details. We then fill the sheet with these parts in order to get the best possible use of the sheet metal, saving material costs and laser cutting time. The final laser cutting nest is then saved onto our company computer network ready for the time when the components are needed. The laser cutter setter only has to call down the correct program nest, select the correct cutting head nozzle and then cut the material. Even the correct assist gas needed at the head, whether it’s nitrogen, oxygen or compressed air is embedded into the CNC program data making setting the laser cutter very easy.

Laser cut completed sheet

If you click on the image here of the laser cut sheet to get a enhanced view you will see that we have used a technique called common line cutting to butt to parts together reducing the amount of sheet needed, laser cutting time, gas and electricity. There also a good view of the parts nested together . Radan sheet metal software is very good at rotating parts with irregular external profiles to find the best fit on the sheet to improve the sheet metal component yield. The laser cut parts can easily be lifted by hand from the sheet metal nest with the scrap skeleton being simply folded up and put in the scrap bin ready for recycling.

Finished laser cut components

The final mild steel components can be sent direct to our CNC bending section without the need for any edge deburing as the surface cut on these mild steel parts cut with oxygen is perfect. Any surface oxidisation will be removed from these gear trays by the zinc plating treatment they go through before finally being sent to the customer.

For more information on cutting sheet metal work with a fibre laser cutter or how we get the best from a metal sheet with Radan software please just give our friendly engineering team a call on 01489 577786 for more help with your sheet metal work project.

Using a CNC punch press to produce sheet metal work

Thursday, April 10th, 2014

Using a Trumpf CNC punch press

Here’s a great image of our Trumpf 3000R CNC hydraulic punch press punching out some stainless steel chassis components used in a piece of electrical equipment. The punch press has been programmed to produce the parts in the sheet (nest) using Radan sheet metal software. Each part has been created as a 3D model in the software and unfolded automatically with all the bend allowances taken care of based around the material type and thickness. The individual part have then had tooling allocated to its holes and external profile based on the use of a standard library of tooling. The tooled part has then been copied over the whole 2000mm x 1000mm sheet to produce the best fit and therefore the most economical use of the material, which is really important with expensive materials such as stainless steel. You can see from the image here that 3 components at the end f the sheet have been turned at 90 degrees to the rest to completely use up the sheet, a feature that the Trumpf CNC punch presses can do really easily with their single head being able to rotate through 360 degrees. The Radan CAD/CAM software takes care of all the X/Y positions, angles, corrects tools and sheet clamping for the whole nest. We just have to put the sheet metal in and take out the finished components with the scrap skeleton at the end of the machine production cycle.

Typical CNC punched sheet metal work

I have included a closer look at the stainless steel chassis component that was being punch above. It’s a great example of using a range of CNC punch press tooling to create an outer profile with chamfered corners, 90 degree corners, straight edges and notches with cuts under and over 90 degrees. All this is managed with just a few simple tools rotated through different angles in the machines punching head, you could say the heart of a Trumpf CNC punch press. The rectangular holes have been produced by using several overlapping hits with the same tool, a technique that can be used to produce any sizes hole when a single hit standard tool is not available on the tooling library. This helps to reduce the need for new tools, keeping the cost of new part development down and speeds up tool changes on short production runs. The Trumpf punch press is particularly good at this nibbling action with its strong single head being part of the machines frame there is virtually no side loading of kicking on the tooling punch and die helping to protect the tools providing long tool life for us and a better component for you.

CNC punched aluminium lighting reflector aluminium

This is a more unusual use of a CNC punch press. We have punched out of a 2000mm x 1250mm sheet of special lighting reflector material a pattern or nest of reflector blanks. The blanks are only held in with a 0.1mm tag left unpunched at the corners of the component. The component can easily be broken out of the sheet by shaking it on a table. The blanks will then be folded up to create quite a complex lighting reflector used in a small wall wash lighting fitting with LED lighting. The material has already been anodised and carries a protective peelable plastic film. We leave this film in place so that the cutting fluids used when CNC punching do not stain the lighting reflector surface. The plastic film also helps to protect the surface when the component is being bent and then in the customers factory when being assembled.

For more information on CNC punching and CNC punch press tooling please follow the link.

Laser cutting 5mm mild steel rings

Monday, April 7th, 2014

Laser cutting 5mm mild steel rings

We have been using our brand new Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser for just a few months now on cutting sheet metal components. We first started by converting some repeat jobs over from our 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses that we were confident with and already knew what could be achieved by CNC punching. We then moved onto laser cutting sheet metal components that we would have spent more time deburring if they had been CNC punched. We have even laser cut holes into mild steel tubes that we would have drilled before, all with great success. We had never CNC punched 5mm thick mild steel before and certainly not circular disks. When this job came up it was a great opportunity to experiment with the fibre laser machine and see what could be achieved by us. The Trumpf laser just flew through this work in no time at all and we were all very impressed with the finished results.

Trumpf laser control

The control of the laser cutting machines head is achieved using our Radan sheet metal software system. The parts can be drawn out in the same way as CNC punching and we can use past part symbols and easily convert them for laser cutting. The most efficient use of material is calculated instantly using this software and then the cutting nest is saved to our network server. The machine setter can call down the correct file when they are ready to laser cut the parts needed. They can amend size slightly to calibrate the cut from job to job and save the data for future batches. They can also create small programs on the fly to use up off cuts of material from other jobs helping to increase the overall efficiency of using the laser cutter in the manufacturing system.

Laser cut mild steel rings

This image shows the parts as they came off of the laser cutter. The edge finish around all the holes, the inner and outer profiles was good enough to need no further processing before they were sent off to be powder coated.

To see a video of the rings being laser cut please follow the link to plant web page.

If you would like to know more about this machine and the type of work that it can cut or perhaps you have a manufacturing project you would like us to quote for please call us on 01489 577786 or send us an email.

Laser cutting 5mm thick mild steel rings – Video

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

Laser cutting 5mm thick mild steel rings

We have been using our new Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser for a few months now on sheet metal work. We started by simple moving some jobs over from our CNC punch presses that we were confident with and knew what could be achieved by CNC punching. We then tried out laser cutting sheet metal parts that we would have spent more time deburring if they had been CNC punched. We even laser cut holes into mild steel tubes that we would have drilled before, all with success. We had never CNC punched 5mm mild steel and certainly not circular disks so when this job came up it was a great chance to experiment with the machine and see what could be achieved. The Trumpf laser just ate up this work in no time at all and we were all very impressed.

Fast Tube by Casper

We are driving this new machine with the same Radan sheet metal CAD/CAM software that we already use for our CNC punch presses so we can easily more jobs from one machine to another to create spare capacity when needed for the odd rush job.

We are now looking forward to expanding the range of parts we can cut in thickness and material type. If you would like to know more about this machine and the type of work that it can cut or perhaps you have a manufacturing project you would like us to quote for please call us on 01489 577786 or send us an email.

Stainless steel components laser cut in Fareham, Hampshire

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Laser cutting stainless steel

Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser cutter in action. When the machine is going at full speed on thin gauge material like this it’s very impressive. You can see where we have taken out the first 2 parts in the corner of the sheet to check them out for size before running the batch of parts

Trumpf 3030 fibre laser in action

The Trumpf 3030 fibre laser uses a fibre optic cable to transfer the power of the laser from its source in the resonator down to the cutting head at the sheet. The advantages of the new type of laser cutter is the removal of all mirrors along the beam width enabling more consistent focusing and greatly reduce machine maintenance. The frequency of the laser beam light is also different from the CO2 lasers and can only be viewed through a special safety filter glass which gives a yellow glow to the photographs that you can see here.

Stainless steel components in a laser cut nest

The metal sheet is laid onto a series of spikes that support it on the bed of the laser cutting machine. The spikes are spaced out to support the material but with the minimum number of contact points to reduce any marks on the underside of the metal while it is being cut. Once the individual parts have been cut from the parent sheet they may fall through the bed and be collected on a conveyor system. They may be large enough to simple sit on top of the spikes or as in this case not small enough to fall through but just tip leaving a rather pleasing pattern in the sheet.

Stainless steel components

The final laser cut parts were folded up into a U shape on one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes and then shipped out to the customer. When laser cutting the stainless steel parts it was easy to put small corner rads on the component to make it safe to handle. The laser machine actually prefers small rads to cut around rather than having to stop dead at a right angle corner.

Have a sheet metal job that you need laser cutting, please give us a call. The advantage of fibre laser cutting is the ability to laser cut mild steels, stainless steels, aluminium alloys and copper and brass.

Sheet metal work manufacturing in Fareham, Hampshire

Thursday, March 27th, 2014

I thought I would just show off a few sheet metal projects that we have manufactured recently to illustrate the range of work we get involved with here in Fareham, Hampshire. They have included sheet metal work in aluminium alloy and mild steel on this occasion. Some parts have been laser cut on our new Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser and some have been CNC punched on one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses. Some have been edge deburred and others barrel deburred. We have used various CNC bending machines with bushes and stand offs being inserted on our Haeger inserter. Some parts have been welded and cleaned up using various grinding and deburring hand held power tools.

Just goes to show what a range of services we offer our customers on a daily basis.

If you have a sheet metal component or assembly that you might want some advice on or a quote to make please give us a call on 01489 577786 or send us an e-mail and we will be happy to help you.

Stainless steel brackets laser cutting to CNC bending

Monday, March 24th, 2014

Trumpf 3030 fibre in action

The Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser cutter is perfect for cutting thinner gauge sheet metal work. I can cope with materials up to 20mm thick but in this instance it’s just cutting 1.5mm 304 stainless steel and very fast. You can see the first 2 components are missing from the sheet and that’s for a reason. We cut the first component and then stop the machine to check it out. We check for general cut quality and beam width that can effect the size of the finished component. We make any changes that might be necessary and then cut a second part and inspect it again if it’s alright the rest of the sheet can be run as seen here.

Laser cut stainless steel brackets in nest

This more detailed view of the laser cut nest shows how components can be nested together to improve the yield from the sheet. If you click on the image and look carefully you can see at the top edge of each component the point at which the laser beam started cutting before it actually cut the component profile, this is know as the lead in. As the pierce point will create a larger hole and some burning this is always done just off the part and then run straight onto the component profile and cut.

Laser cut stainless steel brackets

As these parts were quite small they had a small tag on each part to hold them in place within the stainless sheet after having been cut. The components were twisted straight out of the sheet and just touched on a de-burr belt to remove any witness. If they had been rougher they could have been barrel de-burred but it wasn’t felt necessary on this occasion.

CNC bending stainless steel brackets

Here we have the process needed to fold the brackets up with their 2 angles. We have used a CNC press brake for this operation in this instance a Trumpf 7036 but we have others that could have done the job as well. The components on the left are the flat blanks and those on the right the final folded bracket. The bend tooling is simply a bottom V tool and top V tool with a back stop setting the position of the bend. We have used a G clamp to position a side stop so that the bracket all have the bends perpendicular to the blank leg in production.

Folded stainless steel brackets

And now finally the finished formed bracket ready to be shipped off to the waiting customer.

If you have a sheet metal bracket or more complex sheet metal work project that you want any help with please just give us a call on 01489 577786 or email us with your drawings and we will be happy to take a look for you.

Sheet metal projects in March 2014

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

Laser cut mild steel sheet metal blanks

Laser cut mild steel sheet metal blanks

Looking for clean cut mild steel blanks for chassis, brackets, folded trays, front panels, side plates etc then using our Trumpf 3030 fibre laser is a great place to start. These laser cut mild steel blanks were cut with oxygen for a perfect edge finish. Once they have been folded up they will be zinc plated and passivated which will remove any of the surface burn marks that can be seen in the photo. The finished component result is clean and square edges on both sides of the component.

Zintec fan housing end plates

Zintec fan housing end plates

Just another day and another sheet metal project, this time it’s Zintec. The batch of samples end plates will be used to prove a new design of fan housing end plate before going into full production numbers. Being able to CNC program, punch out and bend up these parts without the need for special tooling helped keep the costs down for our customer and speed up the delivery of the first batch test samples.

Light fitting sheet metal reflectors

Light fitting sheet metal reflectors

Using materials a little out of the ordinary is not a problem for us here at V and F Sheet Metal. Here we have just a small part of a batch of lighting reflectors that were CNC punched on our Trumpf 200 CNC punch press. The material is comes into us already anodised with a perfect surface finish and a heavy plastic peelable film to protect the front face during punching and bending. The material offers our customer a consistancy of lighting output that could not be adchieved with post production anodising in a complex reflector shape.

If you have a sheet metal work project coming up in the next few weeks / months please give us a call and see if you can help you.

CNC punched sheet metal projects in March 2014

Monday, March 17th, 2014

Trumpf 3000 CNC punching pre-coat sheet

CNC punching pre-coat sheet metal

The great thing about using a CNC punch press is it’s ability to process such a great range of material types and finishes. As well as plain mild steel, stainless steels, aluminium alloys, copper, brass etc we can work with pre-painted materials, plastic coated steels, pre-anodised aluminium sheet with peelable protective films to name but a few. Here we have a Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press punching mild steel sheet metal that has a zinc coat on the reverse face and a plastic coat bonded to it’s front face with a peelable plastic protective film on top. The punch press is using a range of cluster tools, some with up to 25 pins, to produce a ventilation area in just seconds.

CNC punched ventilation grilles

CNC punched ventilation grilles

Here’s a much better view of the cluster punched ventilation grilles shown above on the CNC punch press bed. By using the Trumpfs’ unique presser foot, where the whole punch head presses against the top of the sheet metal at the point of piercing, we are able to maintain a good level of flatness even when punching many thousands of holes in these components.

Trumpf 200 CNC punching aluminium sheet metal

Trumpf 200 CNC punching aluminium sheet metal

The Trumpf 200 may be our older CNC punch press but it’s still a great production machine punching out sheet metal profiles in a range of materials and thicknesses. It’s able to handle sheet from 0.4mm to 6mm thick and sizes from small pre-cut blanks right up to 2500mm x 1250mm sheet. In common with all Trumpf CNC punching machines the head can rotate 360 degrees allowing all tools to rotate producing more efficient punch nests and speeding up CNC programming time. We can also cope with punching some aluminium extrusions by using mounting jigs in the Trumpf’s clamps making this machine a very versatile production addition to our CNC punching team.

CNC punched aluminium chassis components

CNC punched aluminium chassis components

These aluminum chassis plates are just perfect for producing on a Trumpf 200 CNC punch press. With multi-tools and a range of standard tools that we have built up over many years of production a component like this needed no new special tools which was a bonus for the customer.

You may have a sheet metal job and not sure whether it should be CNC punched or laser cut, let us have a look and we can offer you the best route to a quality part at the right price.

Sheet metal work projects from February 2014

Monday, March 10th, 2014

Powder coated 4mm thick steel angle brackets

Powder coated angle brackets

These heavy angle brackets have been laser cut from 4mm thick mild steel, bent up at 70 degrees internal angle and then powder coated bright orange and packed into individual plastic bags to protect them. These angle brackets were originally manufactured by CNC punching on our Trumpf 200 punch press with a lot of de-burring after. Now we have a laser cutting machine we have managed to reduce most of the de-burring and produce a much cleaner smooth component. We have lots of components powder coated every day using several local powder coating companies enables us to provide a flexible service.

Galvanised steel angle brackets

Galvanised mild steel brackets

Walking past one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes I spotted a batch of small galvanised mild steel brackets being bent up. The brackets had been CNC punched earlier and de-burred and were being bent into an angle and stacked into a box ready for collection by the customer. Although we manufacture very complex sheet metal work we also often make simple single parts like these angle brackets.

Barrel deburred aluminium plates

Small aluminium plates

Large sheet metal components whether they are CNC punched or laser cut may be left with cutting burrs if these are not important for the customer. Some parts that are powder coated often don’t need any form of de-burring as the powder coat covers the edges and softens the feel of the component. There is another solution to this problem which is to barrel de-burr smaller components. The small aluminium plates shown here have been CNC punched and then rumbled in a barrel with water and ceramic stones. The action of tumbling together for 30 minutes or so removes not only the outside edge burrs but any sharp edges around the CNC punched holes. They are drying here on cardboard before being shipped out.

Slat cleaning on a Trumpf 3030 pallet changer

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

Slats with slag fused on

Here’s an image of our Trumpf 3030 fibre laser pallet changer being cleaned with a special purpose machine. You can see that over time using a laser cutting machine builds up area of slag that is fused hard to the bed slats. This slag doesn’t stop us putting sheet metal on the slats and cutting it but it does reduce the quality of the cut. The image here isn’t too bad but over time the small ends of the slats can grow many time larger and produce a poor laser cut finish.

Slat cleaning on a Trumpf 3030 pallet changer

Using a special machine (TruToll TCS 100) from Trumpf we are able to clean the majority of the accumulated slag from the slats as part of our machine maintenance program. The machine vibrates 2 sets of hardened jaws that chip the slag off each side of the laser bed slats. The cleaner the bed slats can be the better the laser cut finish of the component will be.

Clean slats with no slag build up

With clean slats there is only a small area of contact between the underside of the sheet metal being laser cut and the top of the slats. The smaller the area of contact when the laser head / beam passes
over the smaller any burn mark might be or slag build up on the surface of the sheet metal being cut.

CNC punching v CNC laser cutting sheet metal work

Monday, February 24th, 2014

CNC punching brackets

These Zintec brackets are typical of the sheet metal work that can be produced on a CNC punch press. If you click on the image you can see the detail of the tooling used to create the final component. By building up the use of squares, rectangles, obround slots, circles and radiused tools the final component profile can be produced. The components are left with small corner tags uncut so that they stay in the sheet nest at the end of the CNC punching process. They can then be broken out of the sheet and de-burred if needed. These parts could equally been laser cut and the final component would have been the same except that the laser cut edges would have shown no signs of CNC punch nibbling but may have had some heat marks on the edges.

CNC punching front panels

These sheet metal front panels have been manufactured using a CNC punching program on one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses. The components have a simple outer profile of a rectangle so lend themselves to being common line cut. This is a process where the width of the cutting tool, in this case 5mm, is used to separate the left hand side of one part from the right hand side of its neighbour. So the slitting tool is cutting both edges of the two components at the same time. This technique saves time in processing the parts and enables us to produce more from a sheet of metal saving you money. These parts could have been laser cut but they were faster on the punch presses as all the holes were single hits with standard tooling.

CNC punching lighting gear boxes

One of the great advantages of using CNC punch presses to produce sheet metal components such as these galvanised mild steel gear boxes for lighting fittings is the ability to create 3 dimensional forms within the sheet metal. Where the laser cutter head never touches the sheet metal the CNC punch press does with every cutting operation. This can be used not only to pierce holes but to press in 3 dimensional forms. In this component simple pressed dimples are used to create feet to allow an air flow around the box to help the electrical components inside keep cooler with the need for forced cooling. The same CNC punching action can be used to press in ventilation louvres, self tapping taptite screw thread forms, electrical knockouts, formed countersinks; in fact the list is almost limitless. If you want to know more please give us a call and we will be happy to talk through yuor needs and see whether there is a solution that can easily be implemented using a CNC punch press form tool.

Laser cutting mild steel

Common line cutting is a technique that can be employed when laser cutting sheet metal work. These mild steel brackets have been laser cut with only the laser beam width separating them. Again, as with CNC punching this helps to reduce time and saves money on material but with laser cutting it also helps to save the cost of electricity and gas usage so it can be a powerful technique to keep component costs down. We are always looking for ways to produce work quicker to save you money. These parts were CNC punched but we now process them no the laser cutter as it removed the need for a de-burring operation after CNC punching.

Laser cutting chassis components

These mild steel components which are used as chassis plates for light fittings used to be CNC punched but we have now moved them onto our Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser. The laser cut parts can be fitted closer together to save material costs and again have some parts of their profile common line cut. They are much easier for us to program as a laser cut part than CNC punching which can be an advantage if we have lots of parts to program for a project and we can fit them all onto one sheet.

Whether we are using CNC punching or CNC laser cutting we will be able to help you and decide which process will suit your sheet metal project to produce the best quality of part at the most competitive price.

Sawing aluminium extrusions

Thursday, February 20th, 2014

Panda 400 fast upstoking saw

This great little sawing system is worth its weight in gold to us here at V and F Sheet Metal. It’s so simple to set up and use for small to large batches of aluminium extrusion, bar, angle and tube. The cutting action of the saw is added by pneumatic clamps acting in 2 directions to securely hold the work while being sawed. The system is very safe with a cover that keeps all the swarf and lubricant away from the operator and also works as an interlock guard preventing the saw from operating until it’s in position. The saw has a rotary turntable enabling the saw blade to turn with a simple angle measurement system built in aid quick set up. Mitre cuts of an angle can be quickly produced enabling frames and boxes to be produced when needed. Like other ancillary manufacturing equipment in our factory in Fareham in Hampshire we don’t need to use the plant all the time. We have a range of main line plant such as CNC punching, laser cutting and CNC bending that is working every day and plant like rollers, corner notchers, drill sets and this saw that are used when projects need them. This gives us a great flexibility to tackle many different types of work and react to customers urgent needs as they come up, which they always do!

Sawing supports for long extrusions

Long sections of aluminium extrusion all the way up to 6M long can be supported on the sawing table and set to defined lengths for easy repetition of cuts. The built in tape can be used to set the stops for the first cut which can be checked and then adjusted if needed before sawing the whole batch. Every investment we make is to add a capability to our factory or increase the flexibility of the services we offer to our customers to help them realise their designs in as cheap and accurate way as possible.

Aluminium extrusions

Here is a typical aluminium extrusion that has been sawed to length from extruded section. The saw cut is so clean that we don’t have to deburr it. The final component has ventilation slots CNC punched into it using a jig plate and our Trumpf 200R CNC punch press. The finished component is used as an air conditioning outlet grille.

For more information on our sawing systems please take a look our high speed sawing aluminium plant page.

Laser cutting copper sheet metal, easy for a fibre laser

Thursday, February 13th, 2014

Fast Tube by Casper

Laser cutting copper sheet metal was always a problem or even dangerous to some CO2 laser cutting machines due to the back reflections that could damage the laser resonator. Now with the development of new fibre laser cutting machines copper and brass is easy. Our Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser can cut copper and brass sheet metal up to 6mm thick and the video here shows it cutting 1.5mm thick copper. The laser also being so good at cutting curved profiles was the perfect solution to cutting this complex curved profile fish shape used by an artist as the starting point for his artwork. This video is also a nice example of fitting the best pattern of components into a standard sheet size using our Radan software. The software will automatically try rotating each part and produce the most efficient pattern (nest) to suit the sheet given. I have tried to beat it but usually the software wins!

Perhaps you have a sheet metal component that needs to be made from copper or brass and you thought it couldn’t be laser cut. Give us a call and we will be happy to quote you for laser cutting and bending etc to make your design a reality.

Sheet metal manufacturing using CNC press brakes

Monday, February 10th, 2014

CNC bending production in Fareham, Hampshire

CNC bending on 2.5M long press brakes

Here’s a great view of sheet metal production in our factory taken in 2013. You can see a range of Zintec coated mild steel trays and panels which have been bent up on our 2 Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes. The range of sheet metal parts that we bend up starts at small spring clips and fixing brackets and extends right up to 2.5M long light fittings, support sections and curved profiles in all sorts of ferrous and non-ferrous materials and from 0.4mm to 10mm thick. This looks like a typical day in production to me with several batches of work in volumes from just a couple of dozen up to several hundred off.

CNC bending sheet metal covers

CNC bending on 1M long press brakes

Now here’s a good view of our 2 Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. These machines are very new and have the advantage of 6 axis control so that the most difficult of components can easily be bent up. The computer control systems for both machines are identical and both sit on our company wide computer system. We can write a CNC program on one machine, save it to the system server and then recall it on the other machine knowing both the control and tooling will be compatible. This has the advantage of being able to quickly run both machines on the same job when needed to speed through urgent customer orders or simply being able to use whichever machine is available next to run a sheet metal bending project. We have always tried to duplicate machinery where possible to protect ourselves and our customers if there is a problem or machines are being served so that production can keep going. These CNC press brakes are electric driven rather than hydraulic so are very quick and quite. The back stops and bending speed is the fastest on the market enabling us to turn projects around very quickly helping our customers with urgent orders and keeping the price of each part to a very competitive level.

CNC press brake tooling and mild steel brackets

Example of CNC formed sheet metal mounting brackets

Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes in action on a complex sheet metal mounting bracket. You can see the flat laser cut blanks on the left hand side of the working table, the press brake tooling set up used in the middle and the finished folded mounting bracket on the right hand side of the table.

Laser cutting 3mm mild steel sheet metal

Thursday, February 6th, 2014

Fast Tube by Casper

Here’s a recent sheet metal project that needed laser cutting. We had previously CNC punched these parts but with a new Trumpf fibre laser it was a great opportunity to move the parts over to laser cutting and we weren’t disappointed. Not only was the fibre laser very quick it also completely removed the need to edge deburr the parts after cutting which we had previously been doing with the CNC punch presses. We even managed to get a few more from each sheet helping to offset the cost of the gas needed for cutting the plates. The plates were laser cut using nitrogen gas so they had no oxide build up on the edges producing a part ready for powder coating.

Looking for laser cut sheet metal work, look no further. Please give us a call or send over your drawings and we will be happy to quote you for manufacturing.

Sheet metal sections and profiles

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

CNC bent profiles

When we are forming longer sections, so those over 1M long, we use one of our 2 Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes. These parts are typical of the longer sheet metal profiles that we manufacture here in Fareham, Hampshire.

Small mild steel bent brackets

Small brackets can be bent on our Edwards Pearson larger CNC press brakes but we prefer to use our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes because they are so much faster and quicker to set. We have always felt the need to double up on equipment to provide the confidence to our customers if a machine was to have problems for a day or two that we could still keep going and get that important job finished for them. So we have 2 x 2.5M long CNC press brakes, 2 x 1M long CNC press brakes and 2 x 600mm long CNC press brakes. Quite a range of bending capacity not counting our traditional fly presses that can be used on small angle brackets.

Curved sections

Sometimes sheet metal parts have to have curved profiles but the batch sizes are not large enough to justify special formed curve tooling. We can use the multi-bend prog feature on our CNC press brakes to enable us to simulate a curve through a series of small bends that are created as tangents to the defined curve. The advantage of multi-bending is the ease with which we can experiment with different curves for our customer with no tooling costs and the ability to change shapes from batch to batch when there are drawing issue changes.

Have a sheet metal project that needs bending, give us a call or e-mail us and we will advise you on the best design to suit standard tooling, material and gauge choices.

Forming bends on a CNC punch press

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

Fast Tube by Casper

The majority of sheet metal work with bends that we manufacture will be formed up using a range of the CNC press brakes and fly presses that we have a large range of tooling for. Sometimes we have smaller bends that suit a forming technique using multi-bend tooling on our Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press. As you can see on this video the main parent part stays flat within the CNC punch nest and the smaller finger is bent up using a rolling V system. The advantage in this case is the speed with which each individual bend can be formed which is around 2400 per hour.

If you have sheet metal work with small bends we may be able to use this technique and speed up the bending = saving you money. Please give us a call or email your drawings.

Copper bars for electrical motor contacts

Monday, January 27th, 2014

Copper bars

Another simple part I spotted while walking through the workshop today. Simple part but we still used our Safan guillotine to cut the copper bar to length, deburr belts to smooth off the sharp ends, fly presses to pierce the 2 different holes and one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes to form the 2 bends. The range of skills and processes needs to make the simplest of parts shows the range of services we can offer our customers.

We once had a customer who we only ever manufactured flat panels with holes in, a simple CNC punch press job. After several years of doing the same flat sheet metal panels he came in to see me one day and said in amazement “I didn’t know you could bend sheet metal” after seeing our factory. Now who was at fault? Me for not selling the services I had to offer or the customer for not asking. Well it was my fault but you cannot keep mentioning services you don’t currently offer a customer on the off chance they may need it. I guess nowadays the internet with web sites and blog posts enables us all to demonstrate our non mainstream services to current and potential customers without a hard sell. I’m much happier with increasing my customer base and helping my existing customers with their project problems in this way rather than knocking on the door and pushing sales leaflets in their hands. What do you think?

Laser cutting sheet metal materials

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser

Being a fibre laser allows us to cut sheet metal and plate materials that would be difficult or impossible for conventional CO2 laser cutting machines. Materials such as brass alloys and copper have always been difficult to laser cut but not any more. With the same laser cutting head we can cope with all ferrous and non ferrous materials including zinc coated steels. Using special plastic coating parts can be laser cut in aluminium and stainless steel without the need for etch cuts cutting down processing time and producing a more economical part with a better edge finish whist protecting the component surface in production.

Laser cutting stainless steel

Stainless steel sheet and plate up to 15mm thick can be cut with our Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser with excellent results. Thicker plate will need the use of nitrogen gas in cutting for an oxide free profile edge but thinner sheets can be cut with compressed air and still produce a good edge finish. The speed of the fiber laser allows thin stainless steel to be cut at over 25M/min enabling outer profiles to be cut very quickly and also internal cutouts and holes to be produces fast and with no special tooling needs. We are already starting to produce excellent results with compressed air cutting and will be producing more blog posts on this subject soon.

Laser cutting aluminium

We can cut a range of aluminium alloys and thicknesses using Nitrogen or compressed are with the laser beam. Depending on the aluminium thickness the parts cut may not need to be deburred after cutting.

Fly press sheet metal work

Monday, January 20th, 2014

Brass electrical connector created with bespoke press tooling

PCB connector brackets created with standard fly press tooling

Both of these small sheet metal parts have been manufactured using fly presses with standard and bespoke tooling. They show the great flexibility that can be achieved with our fly presses. We can pierce holes and slots, rad and notch corner profiles, crop bar and angle to length and form different shapes. Fly presses are useful to test out new designs and experiment with forms before committing to full production tooling.

Do you have a project but not sure whether you need tooling of how to go about have your parts manufactured, give us a call and we will be happy to help you.

Sheet metal CNC punching forms, it’s so easy

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press in action

Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press producing formed tabs

We can always form location tabs, earth tabs and locating fingers for assembly work using our fly presses. We often do this to trial a design idea or for projects that don’t have the volumes to justify special CNC tooling. In this case the project had enough volume and repeated regularly to justify spending some money on tooling saving on each part and more than paying back the cost of the tooling within months. The punch press also punched all the other holes and outer profile using standard tooling producing the parts ready for bending up on our Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes.

CNC punched nest of aluminium lighting gear trays

CNC punched nest of sheet metal

The CNC punched nest is created by following the program within our Radan software. The holes are punched in first followed by the outer rectangular profile (which is created with overlapping hits of 70mm x 5mm tooling) and finally the upform tabs are pressed into the sheet aluminium.

CNC formed tabs in aluminium sheet metal

Forming tabs with CNC punch press tooling

Once a shape has been CNC punched out it frees the final tab up to be formed up from the sheet metal. In this case the forming tool produce 2 tabs at the same time saving time in the cycle of the machine and money. It so happens that on this project these gear trays are required in sufficient numbers and repeat regularly to not only justify the cost of the CNC form tooling but having a single hit punch tool which again saves time and money when processing hundreds of gear trays at a time.

Spot welded sheet metal housings

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Spot welded Zintec housings

Spot welded sheet metal housings

Spot welding is a useful manufacturing technique which has been used for many years to join 2 or more layers of sheet metal together. The automotive industry have used this process to assembly car body sections onto chassis and frame work sections with great success. Here at V and F Sheet Metal we use spot welding to assembly various housings where fully welded TiG or MiG joints wouldn’t be suitable. If we were to TiG weld the joints on these housings there would be a lot of heat from the TiG welding process which would burn off the Zintec coating on the mild steel. The welds would need to be cleaned off smooth (removing even more Zintec zinc coating) and the overall production time would be considerably more than the spot welding and as time is money we go with spot welding for these parts. Each individual spot weld joint isn’t as strong as a fully TiG welded run so we make up with a series of spot welds to provide the right amount of strength for this housing.

Spot welded Zintec housings

Spot welded sheet metal housings

The spot welding is not only quicker and therefore cheaper to produce but the skill level isn’t the same as TiG welding enabling us to involve more people in the factory with this manufacturing process. This batch of 200 Zintec housings are made from a light gauge (0.9mm thick) and were ideal for spot welding. Once the fabricated assemblies were powder coated the spot welds were hardly visible and for the application that this housing this used for this was not a problem.

Spot welded and TiG welded mild steel housings

Mild steel fabricated housings

This batch of mild steel housings were manufactured in January 2014 and used many production processes. They started out life as a 3D models of all the individual sheet metal parts within our Radan modelling CAD/CAM software. The parts were then tooled and laid out on a nest for CNC punching. The parts were all CNC punched from mild steel in sets, deburred and CNC bent up using our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. The threaded bushes were inserted before all the corner joints were TiG welded up. After the welds were cleaned off the brackets and angle plates were spot welded in position as seen here. There’s also a good view of ventilation louvres which have been formed into the housing sides while being CNC punched on our Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press.

If you have a sheet metal fabrication project that might need spot welding please give us a call and we will be happy to advise you and provide you with quotations to produce your project.

CNC bending sheet metal brackets

Thursday, January 9th, 2014

CNC bending brackets on a Trumpf 7036

Small aluminium brackets being bent on a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake

It still amazes me how many different types of bracket we manufacture here at V and F Sheet Metal. I’ve just walked past our 2 Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes this morning and spotted these 2 brackets being bent up, both in aluminium. The bracket on the left is a simple 1 bend angle bracket that was programmed, set up with the tooling shown and started within minutes. It’s used in the electronic industry to mount a PCB within a chassis. The bracket on the right is a more complex bracket with several bends and flaps folded back down on themselves to form safe edges. These brackets are used within a product for holding a filter glass in place in a fibre optic light fitting.

Both brackets show how flexible the Trumpf 7036 is and how flexible we have to be everyday in producing different parts again and again for our customers from sample 1 off’s to higher volume batches of many thousands off. The brackets may be thin gauge parts like those shown here or 10mm thick mild steel of 8mm stainless steel. We have to turn our hand to everything that our customers ask of us and if we cannot do it in house we always have a contact that can so we can offer the complete service for our customers.

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