The last few decades have seen a lot of pressure in the Sheet metal fabrication industry due to increased market needs for next-level technology. By just looking around, you notice that bridges, buildings, vehicles, and other structures are getting more and more automated every day. This means that the market shift is quickly shifting from looking for durable products to looking for modern automated products. The traditional workforce was trained for a totally different function and hence the industry is facing a huge shortage in skills. We need fresh ideas for designing different products to fit modern needs.
As time goes on, raw materials for sheet metal fabrication are becoming more scarce, hence the need for improvised metal pieces, recycled materials and conscious metal cutting. This was initially not a problem since most traditional fabrication shops did not have a big problem with acquiring raw materials. Industries have to embrace cutting methods that minimize wastage of materials while delivering high-quality results.
Despite the increasing number of challenges, the emergence of numerical control cutters has brought a breakthrough in the sheet metal fabrication industry. This is an automation of the machine tools operated through programmed commands to precise cutting of workpieces. Numerical control cutters use mill bits, torches, and laser or water jets to cut metal pieces following a computerized control. CNC mills are able to translate computer programs consisting of a specific number of letters to move the cutting spindle to different locations and depths. This means that they can control the speed, depth and direction of cut into precise requirements.
Computerized control has also brought a great improvement in bending and assembling of raw materials in sheet metal fabrication. Initial bending [processes relied on manual hammering processes which were prone to time consumption, misalignment and material wastage. With computerized control, bent marks can be inserted on exact positions of the material under accurate monitoring. Fabrication shops must adjust their mode of operation and embrace modern equipment in order to cope with modern customer fabrication requirements