Blog - Page 13 of 17 -

Sheet metal plate

Friday, July 12th, 2013

Sheet metal plates produced on a CNC punch press

Sheet metal plates

CNC punched plates
These sheet metal plates have been CNC punched from Zintec coated mild steel, they are typical of the complex sheet metal plates that can be manufactured on Trumpf CNC punch presses. We have used a combination of rectangles, circle and corner radius tooling to produce the inner shapes and outer profile on these plates. You can see that the parts have been nested together to reduce the amount of material usage and increase the component yield from each sheet. Each plate is held in position on one corner of each arm by a 0.1mm piece of metal, which is defined in the CNC program. The part can easily be broken out of the nest and the small tag de-burred off along with the outer profile.

Sheet metal fixing plates

Fixing plates
These simple sheet metal plates have been manufactured in our sheet metal facility in Fareham, Hampshire with the use of our Trumpf CNC punching machines. We have CNC punched out the basic outer profile and inner holes using a range on rectangular and circular CNC tooling. The parts at the production stage shown in this photograph are waiting to have an M10 threaded zinc plated steel bush inserted into the large hole in the middle of the plate. The bush will be inserted on one of our 4 hydraulic powered fly presses finishing the component off and making it ready to be sent to our customer. These simple little fixing plates are used as anchor points in wooden speaker cabinets to help reinforce the flying points and wall mounting points.

sheet metal plates

End plates
Here’s a good view of a sheet metal plate blank that has been CNC punched in a full sheet of Zintec coated mild steel. You can see that the components have been nested front to front and back to back. This technique allows us to adopt “common line” cutting where a slit tool produce the left hand side of one part and the right hand side of it’s neighbour with the same punching operation. Common line cutting helps to reduce material usage and tooling hits, helping to reduce component costs.

Sheet metal fabrication

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

Sheet metal fabrications and welding.

Stainless steel seam welded joints

Stainless steel electrical connector box

Stainless steel boxes and enclosures like these can easily be welded shut at the corners by TiG welding. The TiG welding process melts some of the parent metal from each side of the joint. We can sometimes introduce a filler material in the form of a stainless steel rod of a piece of metal cut from the same sheet as the sheet metal components. This filler can help to build up larger welds if internal fillets are required on structural welds. Sometimes the joint can be left after welding with no other work done to it and sometimes it will need to be cleaned off smooth back to the parent metals surface. This joint if powder coated or wet sprayed will be invisible to the final customer and is very often used in cosmetically sensitive products.

Aluminium welding

CCTV camera mounting bracket assembly

Aluminium fabricated assemblies such as this bracket can be joined together by TiG welding without any trouble. This particular assembly had slots CNC punched on the top plate and tabs CNC punched in the side brackets. This technique enables us to position the 2 parts together accurately without the need for special welding jigs and it ensured the positional accuracy of the final assembly. The position of every bracket will be accurate and repeatable throughout the batch. This welding process is good for any gauge of aluminium from 0.9mm up to 5mm thick in our factory and in 1050A, 5251, 5005 or 6082 aluminium alloy grades.

Mild steel TiG welding

Oil reservoir tank in mild steel

If a component or fabricated assembly of sheet metal components has to have a water or in this case oil tight seal TiG welding if perfect. We have made oil tanks out of 2mm thick mild steel sheet which has been CNC punched, CNC bent up with MiG welded corner joints and TiG welded input and output ports. All the welded joints were then leak tested with dye which penetrated the joints to show up any cracks that might leak and would then need re-welding. The heat affected zone (HAZ) seen here on the sheet as a blue and brown area will be covered in a black powder coat finish before the final customer see the tank assembly so was not a problem on this assembly.

For more information on welding please take a look at welding fabrication processes

Sheet metal manufacturing – a birds eye view!

Friday, July 5th, 2013

Great overview of our sheet metal work bending, pressing and drilling areas.

CNC bending in Fareham, Hampshire

Great view of our newest CNC press brakes our Trumpf 7036 machines. These machines are perfect for bending sheet metal parts from very simple sheet metal angles to very complex chassis and enclosure work up to 1M long. With advanced computer systems and software built into each machine and the ability to save files direct to our systems server the skilled machine setters can call up past jobs in seconds and drop tooling into place and be working on your job in minutes. This flexibility is perfect when you have small batches of work or samples to try our for new projects.

Fly presses on a sunny day!

We still value our fly presses as great little production machines. It’s amazing what can be produced on these machines either for sample work or production batches up to many thousands off. Piercing, forming, bending and pressing in bushes and studs is no problem for us with a huge range of tooling. We also have the ability to manufacture our own form and bend tooling to suit these fly presses which is idea if you need a special joggled section, certain dimple form size or hook shape etc. Being hydraulic powered we have better control of the bend angles and form depths making an accurate option on electronics housing and front panel work.

Fly presses and sawing section

Another view of our hydraulic fly press piercing and forming production area. The saw in the back ground is idea of sawing up steel and aluminium rectangular and round tubes, bar, angle and strip. If we get aluminium extrusion to cut up we now have a new high speed up cutting saw in our CNC punching area which is perfect for this type of work. We also have several sets of rollers and a hyraulic corner notching machine to complement our fly presses enabling us to produce so many different shapes in sheet metal that most sheet metal work projects can be catered for without the need for new tooling.

Guifil and Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes

Here you can see over our 2 Guifil CNC press brakes and onto our Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes. The Guifil bending machines are good for simple components for example L angles and U channels up to 600mm long. The Edwards Pearson machines are our largest bending capacity at up to 2500mm long and have enough tonnage to cope with most of the requests our customers make of us.

Please follow some of the links to our plant pages to see videos of these machines working in more detail.

Stainless steel sheet metal work

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

Stainless steel sheet metal work can come in some many different shapes and sizes here at V and F Sheet Metal.

The clamping brackets have curved corners that have been formed with bespoke form tooling created by us to suit one of our CNC press brakes. The stainless steel trays are back panels for all mounted display boards. The dimples have been pressed in each corner on our Trumpf 200 CNC punch press and are used to space the panels off the wall when mounting outside restaurants, church halls and schools etc.

For more information on standard commercial sheet metal stainless steel grades and their properties please take a look at our web page. If you want to see more examples of sheet metal components manufacture in stainless steel or to discuss your specific project please give us a call.

Sheet metal enclosures

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

Sheet metal enclosures manufactured from sheet metal

Aluminium Electronics Enclosure

Here at V and F Sheet Metal we are often asked to manufacture enclosures for a variety of uses. They may often be our customer’s bespoke version of an enclosure that they cannot purchase as a standard enclosure. You know the problem, you have looked in all the standard familiar enclosure directories, trawled the internet and still cannot find the size of enclosure you want or in the right colour or with the right features to suit your product’s requirements. Yes you could buy a standard enclosure and try and modify it by drilling holes or having it re-sprayed but it’s never going to be as good as designing it for yourself and having it made to do the task you need. We do modify standard enclosures for clients when they only want a few units and don’t have the time to design something special but once the quantities increase they will normally want to have an enclosure that does the job just for them. Using Radan sheet metal development software we can help you visualise your design in 3D before committing to manufacturing which can be costly if your design is in error.

19” rack cabinet enclosures are a little different as they have to follow certain size constrictions to ensure standard front panels, chassis, fan units and rear panels can all be sited together and not clash regardless of which manufacturer they have been purchased from. We can help you with that with standard CNC punch tooling and experience of putting together 19” rack enclosures.

Electrical cabinet enclosures are easier as they normally mount on a wall and in isolation from other equipment so size constrictions are not a problem. There is a freedom of design to incorporate hinges, gear plates, anodised or painted front panels, spot welded, screwed or fully welded construction. Again, if you need help please just ask as we have many years of manufacturing this type of enclosure and are always able to come up with ideas if you are stuck.

In conclusion, as with all bespoke sheet metal work we are here to help not just take your order and follow your drawings. We have manufactured so many different enclosures out of sheet metal for people of over many years and are ready and more importantly willing to help you get started and realise your specific manufacturing needs.

Cleaning up sheet metal weld joints

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013

Cleaning up sheet metal welded joints

Nearly all welded joints have to be cleaned up in some way if they are to have any cosmetic appeal. The welded joints may have been TiG welded, MiG welded or brazed in ferrous or non-ferrous materials but cleaning them up will require the same techniques and equipment. The lower the grit number the coarser the surface of the grinding disk so we will often start with a 60 grit sanding disk to clean up welded joints and then work our way up to say a 120 grit or higher depending on the fineness of the final surface required by the customer.

The cleaned up joint can then be orbital sanded to produce a very smooth finish which is ideal if a part is to be powder coated. To go further than this we can get the sheet metal work polished producing highly shiny surfaces in stainless steel or even a uniformly grained effect.

To see more examples of welded sheet metal work being cleaned up please take a look at our plant web page on cleaning up.

CNC punching sheet metal and recycling

Thursday, June 20th, 2013

CNC punching sheet metal and recycling waste to be used again.

When we are CNC punching sheet metal components we produce a certain amount of waste metal. This waste metal can be in the form of metal “slugs”, the small sheet metal pieces that are punched down the tool die with each cycle of the punch press ram. The slugs can be tiny nibbled parts when the sheet is moved only a small distance with each punch cycle or complete pieces of metal where a hit is on its own e.g. a large hole. The nibbled and single hit slugs are sucked away from the sheet surface after passing through the bottom die by a vacuum that is formed on the Trumpf CNC punch press. The slugs are then ejected into a collecting bin underneath the machine. These bins can be changed over to collect different materials depending on the job being run. We also have wast materials which are the outside edges of the metal sheet after all the components have been removed. This nest skeleton can be folded up and put in our scrap bins waiting for recycling. With modern sheet metal processing software like Radan we manage to keep this waste area to a minimum and will often combine different components on the same sheet to get the highest possible material yield.

The materials we run are separated into copeer, brass, stainless steel, aluminium alloys and (ferrous) steel based products e.g. CR4, galv and zintec. By separating out the different metal grades they can easily be processed at the metal dealers and recycled back into fresh sheet metal ready for us to process again.

To view more information on Trumpf CNC punch presses in action take a look at our plant web page.

Aluminum sheet metal work

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

Recent examples of sheet metal work manufactured in aluminium from our factory in Fareham, Hampshire.

We manufacture a wide range of sheet metal products in aluminium alloys include 1050a, 5251 and 6082. These standard alloys can produce brackets, front panels, enclosures, heat sinks, gear trays etc. We also use more specialised aluminium alloys such as 33PG, semi-specular, Miro4 and 1100G materials from Alanod to produce a range of lighting reflectors for a range of lighting companies in the UK. These material allow us to focus and diffuse light in many different ways depending on the lamps being used in the light fitting. For more examples of lighting reflectors please take a look at our reflector past projects page. We also finish and treat aluminium products by powder coating, wet spraying, decorative anodising, alocrom 1000 and 1200 treatments as well as Iridite NCP treatments.

Aluminium alloys are a wonderfully flexible material to work with being easily CNC punched and CNC bent up. They can be welded, riveted and have a number of inserts easily fixed to them. Sheet metal components can be light yet strong, cosmetically attractive and long lasting.

Mild steel sheet metal work

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Mild steel sheet metal work from our recent projects.

With such a large range of sheet metal work going through our factory here in Fareham, Hampshire every day of the week it wasn’t difficult to find a few good examples of mild steel work to show off today. Being able to manufacture single parts and completed welded assemblies from mild steel sheet we can produce a range of parts from the size of your little finger nail up to 2.5M long and in a range of material thicknesses. You may want just a few samples or higher volume repeat production, either are fine with us. Using flexible CNC (computer numerically controlled) machines specifically designed to manufacture sheet metal work enables us to offer you the complete sub- contract engineering service. You only have to look at our gallery pages and plant pages to see just how many different types of sheet metal work we manufacture be it mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium or more exotic materials.

Explore the images above to see just how flexible designing and manufacturing with modern sheet metal CNC machine can be.

If you want to learn more about mild steel sheet metal and it’s different form please take a look at our web page.

Bending sheet metal work

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013

Bending sheet metal work is so much easier with CNC press brakes.

Here at V and F Sheet Metal we have a range of machines called CNC press brakes specifically designed for bending sheet metal work. This work may only be a few mm long and very thin gauges e.g. 0.3mm tin plated steel or 0.4mm specially anodised reflector aluminium up to 10mm thick mild steel plate. The length of sheet metal sections that can be bent can go right up to 2.5M long. This flexibility of thickness and length enable our CNC press brakes to be used to produce all of the sheet metal work that our customers ask us to complete for them.

The range of machines we have are up stroking and down stroking from 2 at 600mm long bed, 2 at 1M long bends and 2 at 2.5M bend long beds, these are as follows:

Guifil PE6-16 x 2 at 600mm long

Trumpf 7036 x 2 at 1M long

Edwards Pearson PR3 and PR6 at 2.5M long

For more examples of bent sheet metal work why not take a look at our gallery pages.

Sheet metal work in Hampshire UK

Monday, May 27th, 2013

We manufacture many sheet metal components from Zintec material. Zintec is a form of mild steel sheet metal with a thin coat of zinc to protect it from atmospheric corrosion applied at the steel mill to the master coil. Zintec is often used for components that do not need to be fully protected such as computer internal chassis, brackets and rear panels, light fitting gear boxes and covers, air conditioning enclosures and covers etc. Zintec is often a good material to be powder coated giving a better protection to the component if it is scratched through the powder. If you want more protection than Zintec then you can have your mild steel components zinc plated. Exterior components that are manufactured from thicker gauge mild steel can be hot dip galvanised to coat them in an even thicker layer of zinc.

These sheet metal components have all been manufactured during May 2013 in our factory in Fareham, Hampshire, UK.

For more information on Zintec and how it is produced please take a look at our mild steel data page.

Bending light sheet metal work

Friday, May 17th, 2013

The bending light gauge sheet metal work has never been easier than with Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes.

We have the ability in house to fold sheet metal up to 2.5M long in both of our Edwards Pearson CNC press brakes and often do. When it comes to smaller brackets, trays, chassis and sheet metal boxes if they are under 1M long we will use our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes all the time. With quick set tooling, easy programming on the machine and the ability to recall past jobs from our computer network these machines offer the best service possible for small sheet metal bending. If the volumes are high being electric these machines can produce bends very quickly and with easy set ups they are very competitive for small prototype work.

Here we have a typical range of sheet metal work for one project that has been CNC punched on Trumpf CNC punch presses and bent up on our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. All the parts were manufactured from Zintec coated mild steel with some parts being powder coated and some left self colour. We have lots of examples of sheet metal work on our web site that has been bent up on these CNC press brakes, please follow the link to the plant page with videos of the machines in action.

Bushes, studs and standoffs in sheet metal work

Friday, May 10th, 2013

Sheet metal components can be enhanced by the use of self clinch and anchor rivet inserts.

When components need permanent fixed threaded features these bushes and studs are a perfect solution. Whether it’s a fixed nut into a side of an enclosure, an earth stud on an electronics chassis or a captive screw in a sheet metal back panel there is a solution that we can offer you. Using our Haeger inserter machine and a range of fly presses with standard tooling we can offer you a solution to all your insert problems. These inserts are ideal as they are quick to insert, reliable and mostly cheap to buy.

If you want to see more examples of sheet metal work with inserts in place please take a look at our gallery web page. If you are not sure which insert you should specify just give us a call and we will be happy to talk through your design with you and see which option would best suit your needs.

A big thanks to TR Fastenings for allowing us to use their images here to illustrate the range of inserts that are available.

Sheet metal work in April 2013

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Just a small taster of the range of sheet metal work projects that we have completed in April 2013

Having the ability to work with a wide range of sheet metal materials from 0.4mm pre-anodised reflector aluminium, grained stainless steel, zinctec and up to 4mm thick mild steel sheet from components the size of your little finger nail up to full standard sheet sizes means we cover a large range of sheet metal projects. With the ability at V and F Sheet Metal to supply CNC punching and CNC bending for complicated sheet metal work and fly presses for simple parts we cover a range of sheet metal projects for the lighting, electronics, audio and heating industries many others in the UK. Now being able to offer high speed aluminium sawing has improved the quality of the extrusions we cut to size for our customers.

Offering sheet metal sub-contract manufacturing services to a large range of companies in the UK enables us to get involved in many diverse and interesting sheet metal projects.

If you want to see more examples of past sheet metal work projects please take a look at our gallery pages

If you have some components that you think we may be able to help you with please just give use a call on 01489 577786 or e-mail on the address at the bottom of the page.

Sheet metal work in 3D software

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

Sheet metal brackets, housings, enclosures and chassis modeled in 3D using Radan software.

The best way to be sure of getting a sheet metal project right is to create it in a 3D environment before committing to CNC punching any materials. Time can be reduced and material costs saved by working out all the manufacturing and assembly problems before starting any sheet metal production. Please take a look at the gallery images below and you will see just how flexible this technique is when working on sheet metal sub-contract manufacturing projects for our customers.

For more examples of our recent sheet metal work that has been 3D modeled in Radan sheet metal software before manufacturing please take a look at our gallery page 3D SOFTWARE MODELS

If you want to read more about the processes we use to produce sheet metal parts and fabrication assemblies with Radan software please take a look at our web page BOX FABRICATION

If you have a project and you need sheet metal parts but you are not quite sure how they may fit together we can take a look and help you with a 3D model, please give us a call.

Flypress work, sheet metal brackets

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

Fly presses with simple fly press tooling used to manufacture sheet metal brackets

We manufacture a huge range of sheet metal brackets for our customers in the UK often using CNC punching and CNC bending technologies. These techniques are perfect for small and large batch manufacturing. We do however sometimes have complex sheet metal components that need to be manufactured quickly and without expensive custom CNC tooling and that’s where fly presses can be so useful.

Fly presses can be used to bend brackets, form small features, press safe edges and curved sections often with our range of standard fly press tooling. For further examples of sheet metal brackets that have been manufactured by V and F Sheet Metal recently please take a look at our sheet metal brackets gallery page.

If you have a small sheet metal bracket or angle design and you want us to produce a quote for you or want some help to find the best design to suit cheap and effective manufacturing techniques then please give is a call.

CNC punching sheet metal brackets

Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Sheet metal brackets and sheet metal angles

All the sheet metal brackets that we manufacture start off with CNC punching if we manufacture them from materials below 4mm thick. If particularly thick materials are needed we get the brackets laser cut before CNC bending in out factory in Fareham, Hampshire. We manufacture a huge range of bespoke sheet metal brackets for our customers right across the country. Some are simple angle brackets made in mild steel, zintec or galvanised steel for a range of industries. We manufacture stainless steel sheet metal brackets where corrosion resistance is required for instance marine, catering and pharmaceutical requirements. Aluminium brackets are often used in electronics designs where a light weight solution is needed or when their ability to carry heat away from a component is needed.

For more examples of sheet metal brackets please following the link to our galley pages.

Stainless steel display cases

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

Display cases manufactured from stainless steel sheet metal go underground

We have just finished a project for a customer of ours in the south of England to manufacture sheet metal display cases for the Glasgow Underground. These cases were manufactured from 304 stainless steel alloys with fully welded corners and then polished to a high standard. These display enclosures house flat screens that can be used to see advertising space where there is a heavy flow of public. These cases are perfectly positioned on the stairways to an underground station.

Stainless steel fabrications such as these display cases are manufactured using CNC punch presses and CNC press brakes before welding.

Bending sheet metal reflectors on a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

Bending sheet metal reflectors on a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake at V and F Sheet Metal in Fareham, Hampshire.

Fast Tube by Casper

0.4mm thick pre-anodised reflector aluminium is being bent into shapes to create reflectors for a paint drying heater. The initial flat sheet metal blank has been produced by CNC punching from full sized sheets on a Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press machine. The correct program and tooling has then been used to produce the bend angles and lengths and form up the reflectors. Once the program has been created, saved and tested the operator can follow the program cycle again and again to create identical components following the dimensions of the customers drawings. For more information on our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes please follow the link to our plant page.

Sheet metal work

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

Sheet metal work being bent on a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake

Fast Tube by Casper

Nearly all of our smaller sheet metal work is bent up on our 2 Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. We do have 2 larger 2.5M long CNC press brakes for longer sheet metal profiles and 2 smaller Guifil 600mm CNC press brakes for small simple angle brackets. They all have their place within our workshop but the Trumpf 7036 machines really take pride of place. With their simple programming controllers, 3D graphics, fast change CNC top and bottom tooling and very fast back stops the Trumpf 7036 machines are perfect for 1 off prototypes, small repeat batches and volume production. Whether its simple mild steel angle brackets, aluminium chassis or stainless steel trays the Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes take it all in their stride.

Please take a look at the specific plant pages for all 3 CNC press brakes with lots of examples of bent up sheet metal work. We also have more examples of sheet metal work on our galley pages to give you a taster of the range of sheet metal work that we bend up every day of the week.

Sheet Metal Fabrication

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Sheet Metal Fabrication

Fast Tube by Casper

From our sheet metal fabrication factory in Fareham, Hampshire we fabricate a hugh range of components and assemblies. This video shows an operator using a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake to bend up a sheet metal fabrication used in the assembly of a light fitting gear box. For information on the fabrications we manufacture please take a look at our plant list pages and our gallery pages.

If you have a specific sheet metal fabrication that you want us to quote for please call us on (01489) 577786 or e-mail us through the website with your drawings.

CNC punching sheet metal gear trays

Friday, March 8th, 2013

CNC punching sheet metal gear trays

Fast Tube by Casper

Sheet metal gear trays being punched from 0.7mm thick white pre-painted mild steel sheet. These gear trays are typical of a range of gear trays we produce for one of our UK based lighting customers either in pre-painted mild steel sheet or aluminium sheet metal. The gear trays may be used for LED or T5 light sources. CNC punching on a Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press is so flexible that we can move straight from one material type to the next in minutes enabling us to offer great value prices for smaller batch sizes.

If you have any sheet metal work that need us to look at for CNC punching then please give us a call or send some drawings and we will be happy to help you complete your project.

Stainless steel sheet metal bracket

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Sheet metal brackets

These small stainless steel sheet metal brackets have been manufactured using Trumpf CNC punch presses and Trumpf CNC press brakes

These brackets are typcial of the smaller sheet metal work that we manufacture in our Fareham factory here in Hampshire. Created for CNC programming by using Radan software to 3D model the component and then develop out a flat pattern, CNC tool and create a full nest of parts on a standard sheet metal panel. The brackets were then deburred to remove any sharp edges before being bent into the hexagonal shape with standard CNC tooling on one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes.

If you have a sheet metal bracket that you need manufacturing please give us a call or send an e-mail and we will be happy to help you out.

CNC punching aluminium sheet metal

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Having a small batch of aluminium parts needed for a special light fitting profject the perfect solution to producing the complex shapes was to CNC punch them on one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses. We soon had CNC programs produced from the customers drawings and CNC tooled ready for manufacturing. The family of parts were all designed from the same aluminium alloy material and gauge so it was it ideal to nest them together on one sheet of metal ensuring all the parts could then be worked on at the same time after CNC punching.

If you want to see more recent examples of CNC punching work please follow the link to our CNC punching gallery. For more information on Trumpf CNC punch presses see our plant page.

New building front cladding and sign work

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

The front of our new home is now finished and looks really smart with new signage.

Now we are ready for business. If you need any sheet metal work, press work or fabrications please give us a try.

CNC punching of mild steel speaker grilles

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

CNC punching mild steel using Trumpf CNC punch presses

When it comes to putting thousands of holes into a sheet of metal it’s hard to beat a Trumpf CNC punch press. With the added benefits of using the press-e-foot feature to keep the final component flat you can’t beat the combination of speed and accuracy offered by our CNC punch presses.

Since we have moved our CNC punching facilities to our new factory in Fareham, Hampshire we have added extra material storage facilities. This has enabled us to store more standard ferrous and non-ferrous sheet metal for a quick turn around of panic orders. If you want to see more examples of CNC punched sheet metal work from recent projects please take a look at our Trumpf 200/3000R CNC punching machine web page.

New cladding building front for V and F Sheet Metal, Fareham, Hampshire

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

V and F Sheet Metal have started to replace the front on their new sheet metal manufacturing plant in Fareham, Hampshire. We have decided to re-clad the front to bring the building up to date and present an image more in keeping with our modern manufacturing plant inside.

We will be posting more images of the progress as the job goes on during the next week. Once this work is completed and new signage installed it will see the complete refurbishment of the inside and outside front of the building. It’s nice to see investment going into a sheet metal manufacturing company in England. We are always updating our CNC programming software, manufacturing plant and tooling so this move to new premises and it’s refurbishment is the icing on the cake for us.

If you want to see how we have converted the inside of the building to suit our manufacturing processes please look back over some of the blog posts from the last few weeks.

Sheet metal projects modelled in 3D

Monday, February 4th, 2013

Here is just a small selection of images from our recent new sheet metal work projects manufactured here in Fareham, Hampshire. The images have been taken from Radan sheet metal manufacturing software which we use to model all our more complex sheet metal components. The 3D model helps us to create an accurate set of flat sheet metal parts that when bent back up will fit together correctly as intended by the sheet metal designer. The 3D model may be solely created by us or taken as imported data from our customers using either STEP or SAT files.

If you want to see more about the software we use to produce our sheet metal 3D models please take a look at our web pages on Radan sheet metal software. If you are not sure whether we will be able to read your 3D data then contact us on 01489 577786 and we can have a chat on file format options.

CNC punching sheet metal work in Southampton, Hampshire

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

Another sheet metal CNC punching process available in Fareham near Southampton, Hampshire.

Nickel plated sheet metal fabrication manufactured in Fareham near Southampton

If you want to secure two or more sheet metal parts together you have so many design options to consider. If the joint you want to create needs to be a permanent one and depending on the material used and the gauge required you might want to have the parts spot welded or Tig / Mig welded together. If however you need to produce a joint that you can separate from time to time this will not be a practical solution. With low production volumes the simplest method of fabrication will be to use screws, bolts, washers and nuts with mating clearance holes or slots in each component, which in may cases is quite acceptable. When the production volumes increase and a more efficient method of fabrication is required then sheet metal inserts for example anchor rivet hank bushes or self clinch nuts can be used to take away the need for loose nuts. These “captive” sheet metal nuts have the advantage of being in place where it might be quite difficult to access a nut by hand. The other solution is to insert a fixed flush head stud into the sheet metal and then have a loose nut and washers to fix the parts together. Either type of sheet metal fixing can be inserted with our Haegar Bush / Stud inserter.

If the production quantities are larger still then a formed burst or plunged hole in the component’s parent sheet material is a simple and cheap design solution. The plunge used on its own within the sheet can be useful with self tapping or taptite style screws if the sheet metal gauge is very thin and is likely to strip out if the screw is ever over tightened. If the screw needs to be removed as part of a service cycle then the thread form screw option would be a better solution. This manufacturing operation can be performed on our Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press here in Fareham near Southampton, Hampshire. The pilot hole is CNC punched into the thin sheet metal, a pin is pushed through the hole to form up the plunge / burst feature and finally a CNC tapping head with the correct tap tool is used to create the formed thread. As the threads are formed and not cut there is no swarf produced in the tapping process and the thread form itself is smoother in the sheet metal.

CNC plunged and tapped threads in sheet metal fabrication

You can see here a thin mild steel nickel plated front panel support bracket that has been CNC punched, plunge formed and tapped all in the Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press.

If you want to know more about this process and its advantages and limitations please give us a call.

This is just one of the design features that we can CNC punch into sheet metal. If you are in the Southampton area and want to see more for yourself please give us a call and come and see what we can do to help you. We have a new factory in Fareham and would be pleased to show you around our manufacturing facilities.

Sheet metal work manufacturing from Hampshire, UK

Friday, January 25th, 2013

Sheet metal work is the process of using thin sheets of metal either ferrous or non-ferrous to fabricate a component. Ferrous metal being that which contains iron e.g. mild steel, galvanised steel or stainless steel and non-ferrous metal contains no iron e.g. aluminium, copper and brass.

2B , Bright Annealed and Dull Polished (at front)

This component may simply be a flat panel, a bent component or an assembly of 2 or more sheet metal components joined together. Unlike a metal casting or machining a component from a solid block of metal a sheet metal component will generally have the same material thickness throughout its form. The manufacturing processes used to produce a sheet metal component can vary widely depending on the accuracy of the component features needed, the thickness of the parent metal and the volume of components needing to be produced. To cut out the outer profile or sheet metal blank from the parent sheet a process may be carried out by simply guillotining, CNC punching with slitting tooling, fibre or CO2 laser cutting, water jet cutting or blanking press tooling. In our factory in Fareham, Hampshire we will use guillotining for small batches of simple parts that do not require too many other pieced hole features. If the sheet metal component has many holes, slots, windows or corner notches etc. we will always use one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses to punch out the outer profile and also the internal features in the same manufacturing cycle. If the component is thicker than standard sheet metal, therefore plate we will use one of our sub-contract partners to laser cut the component for us on your behalf.

Once the component flat profile / blank has been produced it is usually de-burred, a process or series or processes which are used to remove the machining marks from the sheet edges. The component can then be processed in a number of ways depending on its design which might be bending using CNC press brakes, spot welding if used in combination with 2 or more other sheet metal components or TiG and MiG welding. Various ancillary operations such as rolling sheet into curves, inserting threaded studs and bushes, attaching weld studs and machining countersinks can be carried out to complete the final component to drawing. Some sheet metal work will need to be painted or powder coated, plated or anodised which can all be organised to your specification when required.

Spot welded sheet metal work - fibre optics lighting enclosure

Sheet metal work is so flexible producing components as varied as small spring stainless steel clips, specialist lighting reflectors, mild steel enclosures and computer chassis, aluminium heat sinks, stainless steel water tanks, galvanised mild steel angle brackets all from the same plant in our Hampshire manufacturing factory. Sheet metal components from only a few mm across to profiles 2.5M long. If you want to see more examples of the vast range of sheet metal work that we manufacture please take a look at our gallery pages.

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