Every time turn on your home electronic appliance, pick up a phone, get inside a car, or handle any tool, you are looking at the result or product of metal fabrication.
Looking around you, you will realize that our country’s economy relies heavily on metal fabrication. In fact, without metal fabrication, it would not be possible for us to run any of the electric systems we use, or to create various parts that keep the vehicles, kitchens, houses, computers, and businesses operational. Surprisingly, many people have no idea what metal fabrication exactly entails and how it is essential to our daily lives.
Metal fabrication affects many different areas of our lives. This post explains how metal fabrication is beneficial to our lives in the world of today. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the main metal fabrication benefits. Check them out!
- Stronger Than Plastic
Plastic has long been and still is, the main competitor of metal. Even though plastic is appropriate for some applications, the truth is that metal usually wins out regarding different task. First, metal is vastly stronger than plastic. Besides, it is also more resistant to wear and tear as compared to plastic. This also means that metal is more durable. Metal can also withstand high temperatures that can damage plastic since plastic melts in high temperatures. Therefore, metal wins out whenever there is any risk of a range of temperatures, especially high temperatures. Compared to plastic, metal can be subjected to various manufacturing processes.
- Superior Strength
As far as strength is concerned, metal is way above the rest of the materials that may also be used for the same purposes. Metal’s high tensile strength is one of the most important qualities that allow it to have superior strength above the rest. In case you have no idea what high tensile strength is, it simply means the resistance of a material to being easily pulled apart. Since metal has very high tensile strength, it is handy for screws, wires, cables, and other hardware. Metal also demonstrates almost unparalleled hardness and vast compressive strength. These are the qualities that make metal to be considered a material with superior durability. Despite having superior strength, metal is extremely easy to manipulate. It can be easily drilled, bent, and shaped based on the specific purpose of fabricating the material.
Due to its strength, metal is used to make most of the tools that are required to last longer and to withstand abuse and extreme weather conditions. Most tools and a wide range of hardware are also made of metal to make them more effective and durable. Through metal fabrication, tools, weapons, equipment, and a wide range of goods that need to possess superior strength, are made of metal.
- Heat Resistance
Further than the comparison of metal with plastic, metal is resistant to very high temperatures and can resist a dramatic increase in temperature. Suppose the manufacturer or fabricator has exposed the metal to high temperatures to achieve desired expansion. The heat, in this case, will not damage the metal. Actually, the heat will help the manufacturer in manipulating and reshaping the metal into the desired product. When the metal is withdrawn from the heat, or when the temperatures are reduced to normal, the metal will not have any damage.
- Cost-efficiency
Metal is enormously cost-efficient, particularly when the production is done in high volumes. Most machine shops can replicate procedures accurately and create several pieces of a particular product for a much-reduced cost for every unit.
- Aesthetic Quality
Almost all products in the world benefit in some way from aesthetic quality. Be it an industrial piece of equipment or a consumer product; metal bespeaks smooth operation and strength. We tend to link its advantages with our perception of the beauty of the product. That is the main reason the newest technological revolutions such as smartphones and laptops tend to be centered on elegant, sleek metal forms.
Applications of Metal Fabrication
Metal fabrication is a vital tool in many industries. Here are some of the most prominent uses of metal fabrication in daily life.
- Laptop and smartphone shells
The phones and computers we use these days are some of the results of metal fabrication. Mainly with the focus and popularization of sophisticated, simple products that have managed to tame the ever-growing complexity of the user interfaces, the case of a laptop or a phone is what usually defines it as a product in several ways. For instance, the iconic iPhone is considered to be one of the best-designed products and what makes it sleek is its smooth backing of stainless steel and anodized aluminum.
- Medical
The metal fabrication industry and the medical industry are inseparably connected. From lifesaving defibrillating machines to ventilation systems, and from surgical tools to hospital beds, the medical industry is largely built by metal fabrication. Metal is advantageous to the medical industry in many other ways. For instance, metal provides materials that can easily be sterilized to ensure that it doesn’t trap germs, moisture or bacteria.
- Kitchen Hardware
If you take a closer look at any kitchen, you will immediately realize that there are so many tiny parts that are making it functional. In the drawers and cabinets are metal handles. There are drawer slides and hinges that make the kitchen cabinets close and open easily. The entire sinks and faucets are all made from stainless steel that is easy to maintain. Additionally, it is metal fabrication that makes toaster ovens, trash cans, refrigerators, stove grills, tea kettles and vent fans possible.
- Automobile Bodies
Yes, an automobile contains various materials. However, its skin and skeleton rely entirely on metal. The chassis of a car is metal because its frame, suspension rigging, and nearly all of its exterior parts are a result of metal fabrication. It is either aluminum or typical steel. Without metal, a motorbike or a vehicle would not have strong structural reliability to handle heavy cargos or bumps on the roads.
- Hardware and Tools
Our everyday conveniences such as appliances, homes, and automobiles would not even exist, especially as we know them today if there was nothing like metal fabrication. This is because machines usually produce most of the tools and hardware that we use today. Saws, nail guns, grinders, drill bits, hammers, and hair compressors are among the many results of fabrication that utilizes metals. The various pieces of hardware that these tools are made to install are also the results of metal fabrication. For example, nails, tension rods, screws, and bolts are all results of fabrication of metal.
- Automobile Engines
The engines of automobiles consist of very tightly machined parts, which interlock to form a fully functioning whole. Everything, from crankcases to pistons and exhaust system pipes have all been made by metal fabrication methods. Other automobile engine components such as a gudgeon pin, chain, throttle, fuel injection system, oil pump, crankcase, and spark plugs are all made by someone using their metal fabrication skills. Rivets and bolts that are meant to hold most of the engine components together, also rely heavily on metal fabrication.
- Electronics and Gadgets
Electronic shells, if not electronic themselves, also rely heavily on metal fabrication. Wires of various sizes, internal architectures and other materials that allow for the successful placement of components and circuit boards also rely almost entirely on metal fabrication.