Blog - Page 13 of 18 -

Manufacturing sheet metal bent components

Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Aluminium lighting gear tray chassis

Aluminium lighting gear tray chassis

A batch of aluminium sheet metal gear trays used to enclosure electronic equipment on a LED light fitting. The blue colour is the protective peelable plastic film which is easily removed but left on during production to keep them as clean and scratch free as possible. The components are quite complex with a series of operations needed to manufacture them. Each component has been CNC punched and then had any sharpe edges de-burred off (using vertical de-burr belts) before starting any bending operations. The bending operations were carried out in stages on our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes with the hank bushes being inserted and then more bends to finish off the components. We manufacture components like this all the time in batches of just a few off right up to many thousands off. We can provide prototypes for new designs and are always happy to suggest design changes to help you save money in manufacturing. If you have a sheet metal component that you wish us to look at and provide you with a quotation please just call us on 01489 577786 or send us a drawing (PDF, DXF, SAT and STEP formats) by e-mail and our engineering team will take a look for you.

Mild steel chassis plates

Mild steel chassis plates

When producing a component like this bent mild steel chassis plate we have a series of decisions to make. Which CNC tooling are we going to us to CNC punch out the flat sheet metal blank in the first place. Take for instance the large circular hole, do we have a tool the right diameter to punch it in a single hit, do we have a banana tool with the right radius to punch it out or do we have to nibble it out. If we have to nibble it out do we send the blank down the chute in the machine or do we tag it in or punch it all to scrap. These decisions are made all the time by our estimating and CNC programming team to ensure you receive the cheapest component but to a quality level that you required for your finished design. Its the same with CNC bending, deciding which tooling to use and which machine to run you components in can have an impact on the corner radius size and speed that we can produce the components.

Luckily for you all these decisions are made by us to offer you the most efficient method of manufacturing your components and you needn’t worry about these yourself.

Mild steel enclosures

Mild steel enclosures

A wall of 0.9mm thick mild steel enclosures which have been bent up on our Edwards Pearson PR6 CNC press brake. Although we can fold sheet metal components up to 2.5M long on this press brake we often fold smaller components in this material gauge of much thicker, such as 6mm thick angle brackets. These particular bent components will have many different studs and bushes inserted into them and then have the corners all tack welded together before being powder coated.

Laser cutting now offered at V and F Sheet Metal

Monday, November 11th, 2013

Laser cutting sheet metal

V and F Sheet Metal are very proud and excited to announce that we now have a brand new laser cutting service in house here in Fareham, Hampshire. We are offering this service to our existing customers and for new work to enable us to offer a quicker lead time on parts and to improve part quality. Using a Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser we will be able to cut a range of materials including mild steel, stainless steel, zintec and galvanised coated steel, aluminium alloys, copper and brass. This investment in extended cutting ability and material thicknesses has been planned for a long time and has been enabled with the extra factory space we now have. Over the next few weeks we will be able to test out all the laser cutting features of our new machine and I will be posting examples of the work we are producing. Early tests show a perfect cut on thin gauges of metal even when using compressed air as the assist gas. We went for a fiber laser over a CO2 laser as it is cheaper to run and can cut quicker on thin sheet metal gauges (up to 4mm). The fibre laser can still cut up to 20mm thick but currently we will be limiting ourselves to thinner work while we get used to the machine.

Laser cutting examples

Here are some typical examples of laser cut sheet metal parts kindly supplied to us by Trumpf UK. You can see here how complex some geometries can be in a range of material thicknesses and yet they are cut with ease on the laser cutter. Using nitrogen, oxygen or compressed air we can cater for all material and offer parts priced according to suit their final use. More information will be posted to laser cutting gallery pages and a specific plant page on laser cutting over the following weeks as we build up a larger volume of work examples to demonstrate the machines cutting capability.

Laser cutting v CNC punching

Using laser cutting for some parts will enable us to remove the need for special tooling. This will be a great advantage for small volume items of prototypes. There will always be a place for CNC punching in our manufacturing plant with its ability to produce forms in components such as ventilation louvres, dimples, plunged hole. CNC punching is also very good at producing large volumes of holes with cluster tools very quickly. Basically we now have the best of both worlds with our Trumpf CNC punch presses and Trumpf laser cutter and look forward to offer a full range of services to our customers.

Laser cutting with a Trumpf 3030 Fiber

Thursday, November 7th, 2013

Laser cutting with a Trumpf 3030 Fiber

Laser cutting sheet metal profiles is so flexible with a Trumpf fiber laser cutting metal materials from the thinnest sheet up to 20mm thick mild steel. The picture here shows perfectly what we mean with the fiber laser cutting a thin gauge copper which is almost impossible on a CO2 laser cutter. Fitted with a load / unload pallet changing table the productivity of the machine is increased further making it a great production addition to our Fareham manufacturing factory sitting perfectly along side our Trumpf 200 and Trumpf 3000 CNC punch presses.

Why fiber not CO2 laser

If we were just cutting thick sheet and heavy plate all the time in our factory we would have chosen to use a CO2 laser cutting system but as we normally serve customers with thinner sheet metal components and a range of ferrous and non ferrous materials including copper and brass fiber was the obvious way for us to go. The fiber laser being quicker on thin gauges and cheaper to run will enable us to offer the greatest quality part at an economical price.

The fiber laser generator

The heart of the fiber laser is shown here and produces 3KW of power which travels down a fiber cable and directed onto the sheet metal through a nozzle and assisted by either nitrogen, oxygen or compressed air gasses. Not only is the fiber laser very flexible in the range of material types and thicknesses it can cut but its the fastest laser cutting method available for thin gauge sheet metal.

CNC bending sheet metal brackets with stiffening ribs

Monday, November 4th, 2013

CNC bending mild steel brackets

Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes and tooling

Here’s a great example of a small mild steel bracket that I thought deserved a post of it’s own, so here it is. This little bracket has been CNC punched out, de-burred and folded into a top hat shape. The interesting detail is the stiffening ribs that have been added at the point of bending to increase the stiffness of the bracket. This type of design feature can improve the mechanical strength of the bracket without having to increase the material thickness which would have increased the weight of the bracket and its cost. These brackets are typical of the sheet metal work that we manufacture at V and F Sheet Metal on these CNC press brakes having a 35 ton down force and a 1M bed length. The Trumpf 7036 also has its own front table enabling our setters and operators to place work right next to the tooling area and sit at the machine providing a perfect ergonomic environment. This enables us to work quicker on component set ups and on long production runs helping to keeping the costs down per part enabling you to become more competitive. If you have a sheet metal bracket or other sheet metal component that perhaps needs bending or a stiffening rib when bending then please give us a call or e-mail your drawing for quoting and we can have a chat and see what we can do to help you.

CNC bending stiffening ribs

CNC tooling, flat sheet metal blanks and folded brackets

Typical set up of Trumpf style CNC press brake tool with the flat bracket blank and the finished mild steel bracket. Having no light guards but in line laser guards we are able to safely work very close to the top and bottom bend tooling, speeding up production and reducing stress on the operator.

CNC tooling layout

CNC press brake tooling set up

The stiffening rib is added to the bracket at the bending stage by separating the bottom bend blocks and inserting a metal strip in the gap which then forms a rib at the same time as the angle bend. This is a simple and quick set up enabling the rib to be added at the same time of the 90 degree bend which means it comes free, always good news for our customers.

Sheet metal tray

Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

3D computer model of sheet metal tray and cover

3D Radan model of sheet metal tray and cover

I have chosen to included an image on this particular post of a 3D model showing a tray and cover. The sheet metal parts modeled here were quite simple but nicely show how useful 3D software modelling can be in practice when making sure components will fit together and are the correct size for production. This tray and cover had fixing bushes and clearance screw holes that could be tested before sending for CNC punching saving us the risk of scrap metal and ensuring a good quality final product for our customer. You can also benefit from this service for no extra cost as this is part of our setting up procedure and is not charge to you on a production batch. For more information on Radan software please take a look at our web page or give our engineering team a call and we will be happy to help you.

CNC program of a sheet metal gear tray

CNC program with tooling on a gear tray

Once a component or set of components has been successfully 3D modeled they can be developed into a flat blank, this one show here has the CNC punch press tooling symbols in place. The software automatically assigns the correct tooling for hole sizes, cut outs and outer profiles according to rules we have set up to suit our standard tooling and machine limitations. The human element is often needed just to complete the job then the part is ready to be nested in a sheet and then CNC punched for real. You can see on this tray that the 16 cutouts in the were produced by nibbling out the shape with several hits of a smaller stand CNC tool that we had in stock. This is standard practice on sheet metal components making CNC punching such a versatile production process.

Sheet metal electronics gear tray

Sheet metal gear tray

Here is a finished aluminium sheet metal tray that has been CNC punched and CNC bent up. You can see rectangular cut outs in the base of the tray which have been CNC punched out in the same way that the tooled image above was created. You can also see slight white marks in the aluminium running along with the bends. These are from the bottom V block when the tray was being folded up. In this case it didn’t matter to the customer but if it is a problem for you then we can use a thick plastic film which will protect the sheet metal from marks on the bend block.

Preparation for laser cutting gas storage area

Monday, October 28th, 2013

Gas storage area prepared waiting for installation

Now the floor inside is ready to take our new Trumpf 3030 fibre laser cutter we have to prepare an area for the gas storage. These posts will act as a protective barrier to guard the cage that will hold Nitrogen and Oxygen bottles. Nitrogen and Oxygen are used as assist gases when cutting sheet metals and plate with a laser cutter.

Painting protective posts ready for gas installation

Initially we will start with gas bottle packs to see how much gas we use. Once we have a better idea we may transfer to bulk storage containers for liquid Nitrogen an Oxygen. Our Trumpf 3030 can also cut with compressed air giving us the greatest flexibility to select the right cutting method for you work at the most competitive price.

Floor almost ready for Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser

Friday, October 25th, 2013

Final floated floor now drying

The floor has now been floated nice and smooth and back up to the original level of the existing factory floor. The green look is only the final dampness coming out of the floor and will be gone within a few days.

Dry flooring waiting to be painted

Once the floor has completely dried out we will be ready for a sealing coat of paint. We are nearly there now and then it will be time for the arrival of the Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser, can’t wait.

New concrete flooring back in and ready for floating

Thursday, October 24th, 2013

Slowly getting there

Now finally we can see the concrete going back in. The concrete has been poured in and moved around to fill all the opening and reduce the chances of voids in the final floor. At this stage it is important to ensure all the reinforcing bars are encased in concrete to produce one solid floor that is locked into the existing factory floor area.

Top finish starting

Th new concrete floor has to be flat ready for the arrival of our new Trumpf 3030 laser cutter on 22nd October. The floor is rolled and then power floated to produce a smooth even surface in line with the existing factory floor.

Main concrete level now finished

The floor ready for power floating. Power floating can begin once it has dried out more and ready to walk on, now the wait begins.

New flooring area taking shape for Trumpf 3030 laser

Monday, October 21st, 2013

At last, stopped digging down now building up

It’s good to finally see some building going on and not destruction! Now things seems to be moving faster and we can see what is really happening. The hard core was soon filled in and pressed down hard ready for the next stages, laying a membrane sheet and reinforcing steel mesh right across the floor area.

Tie bars in place

All the holes drilled in the side walls of the existing floor had reinforced steel bar pushed into place which could then be tied into the new reinforcing steel mesh. The 2 layers of reinforced steel mesh were kept apart from each other with spacers to prevent the mesh being forced to the bottom of the cutout with the weight of the concrete.

Floor area ready for the concrete mix

The final floor is now ready to have concrete poured into place. We must be in the final leg now, surely!

Sheet metal forming

Thursday, October 17th, 2013

Different methods of sheet metal forming

Sheet metal bending

Sheet metal bending

Simple zintec coated mild steel sheet metal tray formed by 90 degree angle bends on a CNC press brake. The circular hole has been CNC punched out using a banana tool with the wasted disk removed at the same time as the outer profile from the parent metal. Bending using standard “air bend” tooling on a CNC press brake is very flexible enabling diffferent bend lengths and bend angles to be changed easily via the CNC program with no change to the tooling. This method allows for design changes without any cost implication for the customers. This tray is known as a ceiling adaptor tray and is used to house a round light fitting that needs to be positioned in a square ceiling grid.

Sheet metal forming

Sheet metal forming

If a components cross section isn’t a simple shape that can be produced with single angle bends (as above) or a continual rolled radius it may need to be formed. Making an upper and lower tool that can produce the formed section in a given sheet metal material and gauge will save time if there are lots of components to produce or many repeat batches. The form tooling may be used in a CNC press brake or a power press enabling a repeated form each time. The down side of this tooling is that is the design needs to change then the tool will need modifying or at worst replacing so form tooling should only be considered when a design is stable and good production volumes are needed.

Sheet metal multi-bends

Sheet metal multi-bending

There is an alternative to form tools for cross sections that cannot be rolled and that’s multi-bending in CNC press brakes. If a component is not wanted in large numbers or if often changed in it’s design then multi-bending may be considered. The ability to program into the press brake a series of small bends to simulate a curve is very effective when trying out prototypes or for small batch volumes. The curve accuracy can be tuned to suit the customers requirements with the amount of bends and the gap between each bend, the smaller the gap giving more bends but long production time and a higher prices part.

Sheet metal rolling

Sheet metal rolling

The final solution to forming sheet metal components is to roll their section. This band was rolled as it had a constant radius and was quite small. Some parts like this can be formed but if the volumes are only small the form tools would be worth the investment.

We can always help advise you on the most effective method of production to suit the complexity of the form you are trying to create with reference to accuracy and costs. Give us a try, we won’t bite!

Building works get going at a pace ready for a new Trumpf 3030 fiber laser

Monday, October 14th, 2013

The work progresses

Once the pecker had manged to break up all the old concrete floor it was time to remove all the waste broken concrete and steel reinforcing bars. The small digger soon made short work of the task and the floor was then cleared right down to the base ground level. Now all the work could be put into building up a new floor rather than taking away the old shallow floor.

Floor area is now at the correct depth for the Trumpf laser

Once all the old flooring material had been removed we could get the base floor leveled off and compacted down to create a hard based to build the new flooring layers onto.

Drilling tie bar holes

So that the new flooring pad, once laid in position, wasn’t just a free floating island it was necessary to drill into the side walls of the existing concrete and push reinforced steel bars in place. These steel bars could then be tied into the reinforcing mesh that would be laid into the new floor giving a more stable floor pad. AS with all these jobs in was slow going but when you are investing a lot in a new laser cutting machine the job has to be done properly.

V and F Sheet Metal start preparation for a new Laser Cutter

Thursday, October 10th, 2013

Existing floor area before preparation for the laser cutter

So this is where our new Trumpf 3030 3KW fiber laser cutter is going to go. The good news is that when we moved factory from all our small units in Mitchell Close to one building in Brunel Way we knew a laser cutter would be on the cards so we planned in the space to allow us to install one. The bad news was that the flooring wasn’t quite deep enough to take the machine so we have had to take the decision to reinforce the area that the new laser cutter will sit on. The laser cutter will sit next to our 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses enabling us to keep all sheet metal profile processing together. This should allow us to be more efficient in our material handling.

Cutting out concrete floor pad area

With help from Trumpf UK, our laser machine, CNC punch press and CNC press brake supplier, we surveyed the area and investigated several machine configurations before mapping out the size and position of floor that would need to be reinforced. After marking out the concrete floor it was cut out surprisingly accurately with disk cutters. The process was noisy (luckily we are used to that so it was ear defenders on again) and time consuming but it did mean we would get a good edge finish eventually.

Digging out the existing concrete

Once the floor area was cut out to the defined size it had to be broken up. The machine for this was the pecker which was used to break away the surface of the concrete from the middle of the floor back out to the sawed edges. We thought the disk cutting was noisy but this was another level but the builders got there in the end. Slow work but within a day they had cleared out all the old concrete and we were the proud owners of a rectangular hole in the ground!

Sheet metal chassis

Monday, October 7th, 2013

Sheet metal chassis examples from our factory in Fareham, Hampshire

CNC bending chassis plates

CNC bending chassis plates

Great image of our 2 Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes here in Fareham, Hampshire in the process of bending chassis plates used in the lighting industry. These chassis plates have been CNC punched from 0.9mm thick mild steel and de-burred before being CNC bent here. The tooling used to bend the chassis plates is part of our standard bend tooling range so there was no tooling charge for our customer. The CNC bend program was also written at no charge to our customer making it a very flexible manufacturing method if design changes are needed from batch to batch. Each bend has been formed into the sheet metal at a time in a sequence that has been programmed into the machine. The sequence is repeated again and again until the batch is finished producing consistance results across the batch. These chassis plates were made in a batch of 250 and this type of work is typical of the sheet metal work that we regular manufacture for our UK customers. If you have similar sheet metal projects for chassis plates, boxes, covers, front panels, brackets etc we would be very happy to quote you for your prototypes and volume manufacturing or perhaps you need some help with your designs, please just give us a call.

Chassis waiting to be bent

Chassis for a light fitting

Mild steel chassis plate for a light fitting manufactured right here in the UK. The stand off dimples and the electrical knockout features as well as all the holes and outer profile were CNC punched on our Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press in one punching cycle and completely designed using Radan sheet metal software. The radiating pattern of obround slots was easily produced with the Trumpf’s rotating single head design. The chassis plate will be bent up and create the back of a larger fitting using LED lighting on one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes.

Audio electronics chassis

Audio electronics chassis components

Here we have a batch of sheet metal chassis components that will be used to house electronics for an audio company. The top face shows countersink forms that have been pressed in place rather than drilled. The finished chassis components were finally wet sprayed and silk screened.

Mild steel sheet metal work

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

Mild steel sheet metal work

Our sheet metal work projects cover a vast range of sizes and complexities for our customers and here are a few manufactured in September 2013

CNC bent mild steel brackets

Mild steel brackets

Here a complex mild steel sheet metal bracket has been stacked ready to be sent off for zinc plating and clear passivating. The brackets were CNC punched on our Trumpf 3000R CNC punch press and bent on one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes. These particular brackets are used for mounting pumps inside an electrical housing and are similar to many others that we produce every month in mild steel from 0.7mm to 4mm thick for a range of customers.

Mild steel U clamps

Mild steel U clamp brackets

These simple U clamp brackets have been bent up using one of our swan neck tooling sets on a CNC press brake. The tooling enables a very deep U shape to be wrapped around the tooling for the second bend and still be released after bending. We have sets of swan neck tooling for all 3 press brake ranges we have here so this detail can be achieved in small parts like these right up to 2.5M long sheet metal profiles. For more examples of sheet metal bend tooling please take a look at tooling tables.

Mild steel housings

Mild steel housings

Simple mild steel housing CNC punched form 0.9mm mild steel sheet. The 4 dimples have been pressed in during the CNC punching cycle using one of our standard up-form tools. All the CNC punch and CNC bend programs are saved to our system server and are ready for recall whenever the job repeats. This is a practice that we apply to every job no matter how small so that no time is wasted when a repeat batch of components is needed.

Sheet metal profile

Monday, September 30th, 2013

CNC punched sheet metal profiles

CNC punched profiles in plastic coated aluminium

Typical simple CNC punched component profile produced from aluminium alloy with a white plastic peelable film. The plastic helps to keep the component scratch free and clean from oil and finger marks in production. We only CNC program one component internal and external profile and then use our Radan programming software to multiply the components across the sheet. The edge tooling is used to common line cut (producing the right side of one component and the left side of another at the same time). The part are held in with an edge profile that has a 0.1mm tag in each corner which is easily broken off after CNC punching has taken place.

Sheet metal CNC punched profiles

This part also produced on the same sheet uses a 4 corner radius profile tool to produce a small corner rad in several places. With a Trumpf it’s easy for us to turn the radius tool to whichever angle we want and create the correct profile. This particular CNC tool has a R2, R3, R4 and R5 built into it making it very flexible for components with a variety of corner rad profiles. There is also a single D profile punched into the component, we have a range of single and double D tooling which can be specified in your sheet metal component designs for free, follow the link to our tooling pages Single D and Double D.

CNC punched 2 part nest

A recent project needed a small box and cover to be manufactured both from the same material and thickness. The ideal solution was to CNC punch them from the same sheet of metal as seen here. This has the advantage of using material with the same tensile strength enabling easier setting for us when CNC bending and punching the whole project to production at the same time. These were simple parts but sometimes when there are complex profiles one part can be nested within another, say inside an internal window or between two parts with a hollow profile. We are always looking for ways to reduce CNC punching time and materials used to help keep your part prices down.

Sheet metal lighting reflectors

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

Here at V and F Sheet Metal we often manufacture sheet metal reflectors for our lighting customers these above just being a small range. Some of the reflectors may only be powder coated steel or pre-coated white mild steel. Others, as above can be manufactured from specialist anodised reflector aluminium. These materials are usually 0.4mm thick and can be successfully CNC punched and CNC bent without any special tooling needs. The reflectors can be small parts such as these shown here right up to 6 foot long T5 reflector profiles.

If you have a sheet metal lighting reflector that you need manufacturing then please give us a call on 01489 577786 or send us a drawing by e-mail and we will be happy to help you.

Sheet metal covers

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

Sheet metal covers

Brass display panel covers

Sheet metal brass covers

Here’s an eye catching example of brass sheet metal covers in production at V and F Sheet Metal. These brass covers make up the front of an illuminated display board system completed with a 304 stainless steel back panel or optional 316 stainless steel front cover. These brass covers were manufactured from CZ108 brass sheet with a protective peelable plastic film. The plastic film helps to keep the material scratch free in production. Once the corner joints have been welded up they are cleaned off smooth back to the parent metal and bright polished all over before being clear wet sprayed to protect them from most atmospheric corrosion.

Zintec sheet metal covers

Sheet metal Zintec covers

These Zintec coated mild steel covers were recently manufactured in our Fareham factory. They are used in some pumping equipment and cover the electronics protecting it from the atmosphere that its working in. The Zintec covers were CNC punched and CNC bent up on our Trumpf manufacturing equipment and then powder coated for our customer. All the bends of the covers were simple bent tight without any welding as the finish covers were screwed down in place locking all the joints together.

Pre-coated mild steel cover

Sheet metal pre-coated mild steel cover

This small cover was developed to cover a motion sensor on a T5 light fitting. The cover was CNC punched with a series of slotted lines allowing the cover to be hand folded over the sensor covering completely before being screwed down. This type of “easy-bend” design is useful in a number of applications where a standard press braked bend cannot be achieved or when a final bend is needed after some equipment has been inserted into the cover. The material shown here is a pre-coated white mild steel sheet with a peelable plastic film and is a cost effective alternative to mild steel and powder coating.

Sheet metal bracket

Thursday, September 19th, 2013

Sheet metal bracket

CNC punched Zintec brackets

Zintec brackets

Zintec is a zinc coated mild steel sheet metal whcih is often used for internal components with larger assemblies or where the final component is not effected by a corrosive environment. Good examples of this are PC back panels, components in fridges, light fittings, electrical enclosures etc. These particular brackets will be bent up and then used inside a control box used in the brewery industry. You can see that the curved profiles were created using banana shaped tooling on our Trumpf 3000 CNC punch press.

Folded stainless steel brackets

Stainless steel brackets

These brackets have been manufactured from 304 stainless steel on our Trumpf CNC punch presses and CNC press brakes. The bracket is quite complicated with many bends of different sizes and angles and yet the whole cycle of bending was carried out from one set up on the Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake. The bracket is used to suspend metal ceiling panels in large ships and is a great example of the versatility of brackets that can be manufactured with our plant on any one day for our customers.

Bent galvanised steel brackets

Galvanised steel brackets
These brackets have been produced from pre-galvanised mild steel sheet metal. They have been CNC punched out with all their holes and outer profile produced in seconds. The bends have all been produced on a Trumpf 7036 CNC press brake. These brackets are used inside a large flood light and carry all the electronics equipment needed to control the lamp.

Sheet metal rolled sections

Monday, September 16th, 2013

V and F Sheet Metal are happy to produce flat sheet metal work in the form of plates and panels, perhaps used as front panels, rear panels, mounting plates etc. We are equally happy manufacturing bent up housings, cabinets, boxes used for a wide range of products including electronics enclosures, light fitting housings. screen cans etc. We can also produce curved sheet metal forms in a variety of ways.

Formed curved sections

If we have a form tool that it the exact radius or form then this is the quickest and cheapest way to go.

Multi bend curved sections

If we don’t have a standard form tool and then numbers don’t justify manufacturing a special tool then using this production method on one of our CNC press brakes is a good idea.

Rolled curved sections

Again some parts lend themselves to being rolled up especially if the curve needed is a consistent radius and over 180 deg.

To view more examples of sheet metal rolled sections please follow the link.

Sheet metal lids

Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Sheet metal lid

Galvanised mild steel electrical junction box lid

Lids and covers are usually simple components when manufactured from sheet metal and these examples are typical of the type of sheet metal work we get involved with. They may be falt sheet, have folded sides like these or have welded corners. This simple lid has been CNC punched from 0.9mm thick galvanised steel sheet. The sides have all been folded down to cover the top of the box and and earth stud has been inserted on our Haeger bush / stud inserter machine. The windows have all been CNC punched out and will have electrical sockets snapped in place and then installed as electrical wiring junction boxes. For more information on inserting bushes and studs please take a look at our Haeger bush/stud insert web page.

Stainless steel cabinet lid

Here is an example of sheet metal work where stainless steel has been used to manufacture a series of side covers and a top lid for a large stainless steel fabricated enclosure. The whole fabricated assembly was manufactured from 304 stainless steel with sections being TiG welded together. The enclosure was used to hold ozone gas which was pumped into it’s main cavity and held in place while it kill bugs on plastic packing materials before they are used to pack up sandwiches.

Stainless steel lid on an enclosure

Stainless steel enclosure with lid in place ready for shipping. The lid and enclosure have been manufactured from 304 stainless steel and the lid has been attached by spot welding cut lengths of stainless steel piano hinge. These particular stainless steel enclosure assemblies are used to house pumping equipment and their control gear on oil and petrol tankers. If you have any products manufactured from sheet metal that need lids then please give us a call or e-mail us, contact details on our website and we will be happy to provide you with a price or help on your design if needed.

More formed countersinks in sheet metal …

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013

CNC punched countersink form in aluminium sheet metal

Small countersink screw holes have been formed into 1.5mm thick aluminium sheet metal without any local distortion. These components are used in a small LED light fitting. The CNC punched nest also nicely shows the use of corner radiusing tools and a knife tool to produce a small securing tag in the parent sheet.

CNC punched countersink form in Zintec sheet metal

These Zintec coated mild steel tread plates are used as protection strips for wheel chair access ramps and between areas within properties where protection is needed between carpet and hard floor areas. The formed countersink holes have been plunged through the sheet on our Trumpf 200 CNC punch press to fully support the countersink screw and enable it to sit below flush with the top surface for safety.

CNC punched countersink form in mild steel sheet metal

Formed countersink holes in 3mm thick mild steel sheet. The formed holes, 2 different sizes, were created with 2 different tools within our Trumpf 3000 CNC punch press but in the same program cycle time.

Forming Countersinks in Stainless Steel Sheet Metal

Friday, September 6th, 2013

CNC punching stainless steel pump mounting plates

A great shot of stainless steel pump mounting plates after they have been CNC punched on one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses. The keyhole feature has been created by the use of a slot and circular punch. The countersinks have all been formed with the pilot hole and countersink form both taking less than 1 second each to produce, much quicker than drilling a countersink. These particular plates were 0.9mm thick 304 stainless steel but a range of thicknesses and materials can use this technique to produce quick and consistent countersink formed holes. For more information on our CNC tooling please take a look at Trumpf standard 2D tooling

Pierced pilot holes and formed CSK.

Close up of the formed countersink holes. The countersink form is created in two hits, the first being a simple round pilot hole to remove some of the material from the plate and the second hit being the shaped countersink form tool. Both operations are carried out in the cycle time of the CNC punch press and are part of the CNC program so that the finished form is completed before the sheet metal parts are broken out of the CNC punched nest. The parts were held in using a 0.1mm corner tag so that they could easily be broken out and then the tag was removed with the edge de-burring process.

CNC punching stainless steel pump mounting plates with formed material on the reverse (die) side.

The reverse (die) side of the countersink form shows some material that has been formed through the sheet metal gauge. This is acceptable on these pump mounting plates as the plate does not have to sit down flush. The extra material also has the advantage over drilling a countersink hole in that it supports the complete head of the countersink screw.

Sheet metal fabrications in Hampshire

Friday, August 16th, 2013

Sheet metal work and fabrications in Hampshire

We get involved with so many different sheet metal projects and fabrications here in our manufacturing base in Fareham, Hampshire. I have included today just a few of the latest sheet metal projects that have been manufactured for our UK based customers. Everyone has it’s own story and range of manufacturing skills and techniques needed to produce the perfect sheet metal fabrication.

Galvanised mild steel sheet metal channel sections

These long sheet metal fabrications were CNC punched from 2mm thick pre-galvanised mild steel sheet. The project called for several trial samples to get the design correct for the customer and adjustments to suit our press brake tooling. The bend angles were held off at just over 90 degrees so they would stack inside each other saving a lot of space when being packed and transported to the final installation site in Kenya. The final order call for several hundred fabrications all produced within our sheet metal facility in Hampshire. Our engineering services are idea for a project like this including Radan sheet metal development software, CNC punching and CNC bending.

Sheet metal brackets

This is a great image that caught my eye why walking around the factory the other day, couldn’t resist a quick photo. Each part is a sheet metal bracket with a couple of bends but by stacking them together you do get a great pattern, sad I know but it pleased me. The brackets had been CNC punched, edge de-burred and CNC bent using one of our two Trumpf CNC press brakes. The operation was to have them surface treated with zinc plated and clear passivate by one of our zinc platers in Hampshire.

Aluminium sheet metal fabrication project

A simple aluminium fabrication but it was designed in Radan as a solid model with a front panel and PCB mounting angles from our customers verbal instructions. We were able to take our customers verbal instructions and a simple sketch and turn it into a series of 3D images for approval. Once it was approved we then manufactured a sample set of parts for assembly and then after a few simple updates the production batch was produced and then powder coated. This shows just how powerful 3D modelling can be when the initial project is not fully detailed.

Complex sheet metal shapes

When complicated profiles such as these are required and we don’t have the exact tooling to form in one operation a manufacturing technique know as multi-bending can be very useful. The curves of the profile can be simulated by producing a series of separate smaller flats with a bend setting the angle between each flat. In affect the curve is produced by a series if flat faces touching the curve at a tangent. If we produce my bending and the profile in the sheet metal fabrication is a better approximation to the drawn curve but it costs more as the component takes longer to produce.

For more examples of sheet metal fabrication projects that might help give you ideas for your sheet metal designs take a look at our SHEET METAL WORK AND FABRICATIONS IN HAMPSHIRE.

Sheet metal box

Tuesday, August 13th, 2013

Sheet metal boxes, their design and manufacture

3D models helping to create sheet metal boxes

Nearly all our sheet metal work projects start with a 3D model or series of models if an assembly is required and sheet metal boxes are no different. The box and cover pictured here have been created in Radan sheet metal development software to enable us to check the sizes of the box and cover, their fit to each other, hole alignment, material and thicknesses. Once the model has been approved it can be used to create the correct flat pattern and then assign CNC punch tooling or laser cutting paths to the inner holes, cut outs and outer profile. Production features such as corner assembly tabs can also be added to the model where needed.

Corner preparation for welding fabrication

Sometimes thin gauge sheet metal boxes need to be held in place when being welded. Thicker materials when bent hold their correct position and don’t need tagging unless the box is being fabricated from several separate sheets of metal. With thinner materials such as this mild steel box show here although the corners can be bent correctly they will move around when being welded up. The corners can be clamped together with individual clamps or production jigs but these can be time consuming to position correctly. By building the tabs into the design the welder can push the 2 sides together and produce the correct box shape and size every time simply and quickly.

Fabricated aluminium box

Here is a nice example of an aluminium box that has been CNC punched out from sheet, CNC bent up to form all the sides and then TiG welded together in the corners. The welds have then been cleaned off by grinding and orbital sanding to create a smooth outer surface which once powder coated will produce a perfect finish. If you want to see more examples of the stages of design and manufacturing involved in producing sheet metal boxes please take a look at our web page sheet metal box manufacturing to see what goes on here in Fareham, Hampshire.

Sheet metal panel

Friday, August 9th, 2013

Sheet metal panels

Ventilation panels

Ventilation panels
These ventilation panels are used on heating units with formed extruded sections. The ventilation panels are used to support the heating coils within the heat unit body (which can be up to 2.5M long) and are manufactured from Zintec coated mild steel. The extruded forms are produced in the panel by first piercing a pilot hole smaller than the final extruded hole in the sheet metal and then a second operation of a male and female former tool come together to push the excess metal through the sheet. Each formed extrusion is produced in a second on one of our Trumpf CNC punch presses making the process very easy and cheap to perform and yet perfectly repeatable within the program right across a full sheet of metal. The depth of the form within the panel can be controlled by altering the size of the initial pilot hole within the CNC program.

Ceiling adaptor panel for light fitting

Ceiling adaptor panel
This 2.5mm thick 304 type stainless steel plate is used as a ceiling adaptor or mounting panel for a small replacement light fitting. When a ceiling has lighting replaced there may be a hole that is too large for the replacement lighting and rather than renew the whole ceiling sometimes ceiling adaptor or mounting panels can be used to allow new smaller light fitting to be used with the minimum disturbance to the original ceiling structure. This ceiling mounting panel has been made from stainless steel sheet metal and has a machined beveled edge all around to produce a pleasing effect once installed in the ceiling. There are weld studs on the back face to fix the light fitting to and the front face has been posy op polished to give the clean smooth effect seen here.

Mounting panel for electronics housing

Electronics mounting panel
Here is a simple mounting panel used within an electronics housing. This panel has been manufactured from 1.2mm aluminium sheet on a Trumpf CNC punch press, edge deburred and then had 5 self clinch bushes pressed in place on our Haeger inserter press. This small panel is typical of the huge range of simple sheet metal components that we manufacture in batches from just a few to many thousands. The advantage of CNC punching is the ease with which you can change batch sizes and create bespoke CNC programs just for one batch if needed to match production with customer order requirements or even KANBAN call off if required.

LED display panel

LED mounting panel
LED PCB mounting panels used within LED display board units for moving image and text signs. These mounting panels have been CNC punched and CNC bent using Trumpf equipment in our manufacturing factory in Fareham, Hampshire. They are an example of a large range of display panel work that we make from aluminium sheet metal. The patterns of holes have been CNC punched using special cluster tooling which helps to reduce the time and cost of each part. The customer purchased the tooling for this panels and they are used across the range of their LED panels and they savings per part have paid for the tooling many times over.

Sheet metal bending in Hampshire

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

Aluminium sheet metal sections

Sheet metal bending in Hampshire

Whether you want a 2.5M long L angle section, U section, top hat profile or more complex cross section we have the bending machines and tooling to produce your sheet metal work for you. Perhaps you need a smaller fixing bracket, heat sink chassis, gear tray or enclosure again we have a huge range of standard straight and swan neck tooling for our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes to produce your designs quickly and cheaply.

We have customers right across Hampshire and the length of the UK which we serve with next day deliveries in vans or on pallets depending on the work volume and length of component. If you are passing Fareham on the M27 we are just a few minutes away and always welcome a visit and a chance to show off our bending facilities.

Give us a call on 01489 577786 or e-mail us your drawing ideas and we can produce a quote for you.

Sheet metal housings

Sunday, July 21st, 2013

Sheet metal housings

3D software model

3D software models used to help develop sheet metal housings
Whenever we have a new housing that needs to be developed for a customer we use 3D sheet metal modelling software from Radan. We can easily create a 3D model (of either a single part or a complex assembly of parts) ourselves from scratch or import your 3D data in either SAT or STEP format. The 3D model can then be used to calculate all the correct blank sizes, hole positions and corner notches needed to produce the correct CNC punching or laser cutting programs. Once folded up on one of our CNC press brakes or fly presses the final part will replicate the 3D model.

Mild steel spot welded housing

Spot welded mild steel light fitting housing

Here is a great example of a sheet metal housing we manufacture for a UK lighting company. The housing has so many different manufacturing techniques needed to produce it including CNC programming, CNC punching, de-burring, CNC bending, bush and stud inserts pressed into place, spot welded fabrication and powder coating with the bush and stud threads being masked off to stop them filling up with powder when coating. The perforated sheet metal end plates act as added ventilation for the light fitting housing and have been CNC punched out of pre-perforated mild steel sheet. This sheet metal housing holds all the electrical control gear needed to drive a fibre optics bedside lighting unit often used in hotel bedrooms.

Aluminium light fitting housing

Aluminium light fitting housing components

This light fitting housing was again developed in Radan software using the 3D modelling tools to ensure all the fixing holes lined up and the cover of the housing correctly fitted over the body of the housing. The housing assembly was complex and many points had to line us correctly with bushes and screw clearance holes. Some of the countersunk holes were produced in our CNC punch presses using form tooling allow us to press the countersink form in 1 second. The blue and green plastic coating the aluminium sheet is to help protect the surface and reduce scratched in production. Once the housing parts have been finished they have the plastic film removed and then silver anodised.

Welded aluminium housing

Sheet metal fabricated housing

Strong sheet metal housing constructed from aluminium. All the corners have been fully seam welded together with various plates inserted into the housing. Once again, 3D software helped us to develop all the correct sizes needed to manufacture the housing and to produce 2D drawings with inspection points. With all these housings whether they are just folded up to fit together, spot welded fabrications and fully welded the importance of producing the correctly sizes parts starts from accurate CNC punch press or laser programming. If you have a housing that needs to be manufactured from sheet metal we will have the right approach to produce the housing efficiently, accurately and at a price that will help you be competitive, please give us a call or send you drawings to us for a quote.

Sheet metal channel

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Sheet metal channels manufactured from ferrous and non-ferrous materials in Hampshire, UK

Sheet metal channels in aluminium alloy grade 5251

Whenever you want a sheet metal section bent up as an “L” angle, U channel, “Z” section or more complicated cross section we are here to help you. You may want a small bracket bent into a “Z” shape or a 2.5M long “U” channel either way we can help you. With standard CNC press brake tooling, over bend tooling, safe edges tooling and swan neck tooling most shapes that you come up with in many materials from 0.4mm thick to 6mm thick we will be able to help you with. We can even produce curved sectioned without special form tools by using a multi-bend technique allowing a series of close bends to form a curve section in small steps.

If you want to see some of the standard sized sections that can be bent with standard tooling please take a look at these links:

Single “L” bend

Double “U” bend

“Z” bend

Small joggle bend sections

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

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