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.