Sheet Metal Processing Technology

Sheet metal processing is a metal processing technology, mainly through the metal plate cutting, bending, stamping and other processing technology, to manufacture a variety of metal products. Sheet metal processing is widely used in furniture, electronics, communications, construction, automobiles, machinery, chemical industry and other fields.

The main process flow of sheet metal processing includes the following steps:

1. Material preparation:   select the appropriate metal plate according to the design requirements, and carry out cutting, grinding, cleaning and other treatments.
2. Programming design:   convert design drawings into machine-recognizable programs for programming design through computers.

3. Processing technology:   according to the programming design, through CNC punching machine, CNC bending machine, CNC shearing machine and other equipment for processing technology, complete cutting, bending, stamping and other processes.
4. Surface treatment:   through spraying, electroplating, heat treatment and other surface treatment processes, the surface of sheet metal products has good corrosion resistance and aesthetics .

5. Quality inspection:   quality inspection of processed sheet metal products, including dimension, surface quality, mechanical properties and other aspects of testing.
6. Assembly and installation: the sheet metal products are assembled and installed to become the final finished product.
Sheet metal processing has the advantages of high processing precision, high production efficiency and low processing cost, so it has been widely used and promoted in modern manufacturing.

Sheet metal processing process:

Blanking→ Bending→ Stretching→ Welding→ Spraying→ Assembly→Inspection→ Storage.
1. Blanking
Mainly CNC stamping and laser cutting.
CNC stamping adopts CNC stamping machine tools, and the thickness range of plate is cold rolled and hot rolled plate ≤3mm, aluminum plate ≤4mm, stainless steel ≤2mm. Punching requires a minimum size, which is related to the shape of the hole, the properties of the material, and the thickness.
Laser cutting adopts laser cutting machine tool, and the plate thickness processing range is 20mm ≤ cold rolled plate and hot rolled plate, and 10mm ≤ stainless steel. Its advantages are that the plate thickness is large and the shape of the cutting workpiece is fast.

2. Bend
CNC machine tools are used to perform bending operations of specified dimensions.
The bending part has a minimum bending radius. When the material is bent, the outer layer stretches and the inner layer compresses. When the thickness of the material is constant, the smaller the inner bending radius, the more serious the tensile and compression of the material; When the tensile force of the outer layer exceeds the limit of the material, it breaks and breaks.

3. Stretching
The corner radius between the bottom of the stretched part and the straight wall should be greater than the plate thickness, and the thickness of the material after stretching will change to a certain extent. The bottom center generally maintains its original thickness, the material at the bottom fillet becomes thinner, the material near the flange at the top thickens, and the material at the rounded corner around the rectangular stretch thickens.

4. Welding
Welding is divided into manual welding or robot automatic welding two ways, is the cut material according to the processed finished sheet metal parts for finished product welding of a process, this process is also dangerous, must be a certain experience of the teacher operation, or choose robot manipulator to complete, high efficiency, high precision.
Mainly arc welding and gas welding. Arc welding has the advantages of flexibility, mobility, wide applicability, full welding, simple equipment, good durability and low maintenance cost. But the labor intensity is high and the quality is unstable, depending on the level of operators. It is suitable for welding non-ferrous alloys above 3 mm such as carbon steel, low alloy steel, copper and aluminum.

5. Surface Treatment
Surface treatment processes are also very numerous, common hot dip galvanizing, cold dip galvanizing, galvanized coloring, powder coating, sandblasting, anodizing coloring, blackening, polishing and brushing, etc., while surface treatment is also an important environment in precision stamping sheet metal processing, directly affecting the appearance smoothness of finished sheet metal parts, precision tolerances and other effects.
Spraying: The surface of the hardware is automatically sprayed with oil and powder by machines such as ovens, so that the appearance of the product is beautiful and meets the needs of packaging and shipment.
Baking paint: is to wear a “vest” for sheet metal processing parts according to the different uses of sheet metal parts to change new clothes, here is not only the change of color, the process of baking paint is also very rigorous, temperature, time, paint color mixing, etc., are crucial.

6. Inspection
The product production process is controlled by the quality inspection department in real time, reducing production loss and defective rate, and ensuring production quality.

7. Warehousing
The products that have gone through the above process have met the requirements of warehousing and ready for shipment, and can be packaged into storage.

What Equipment Is Used in Sheet Metal Processing?

1. Cutting Equipment:
Ordinary Shearing Machine, CNC Shearing Machine, Laser Cutting Machine, CNC Punching Machine

2. Forming Equipment:
Ordinary Punching Machine, Mesh Machine, Bending Machine and CNC Bending Machine, CNC Stamping Machine.

3. Welding Equipment:
TIG Welding Machine, Carbon Dioxide Shielded Welding Machine, Spot Welding Machine, Robot Welding Machine

4. Surface Treatment Equipment:
Wire Drawing Machine, Sand Blasting Machine, Polishing Machine, Electroplating Tank, Oxidation Tank, Powder Coating Production Line, Baking Paint Production Line.

5. Shaping Equipment:
Leveling Machine