Are you planning to design a structure with non-standard structural components? Are you in need of an experienced metal fabrication company for your big project? Need a fabrication company that can take care of drawing, designing, and manufacturing of structures and platforms and shapes your project? It’s vital you hire the right custom metal fabrication company as they are crucial to a project’s success or failure. Here are the few factors that you must consider while choosing the metal works and metal fabrication company for your project.
Local Proximity
It is not a critical factor but having a fabrication company in close local proximity has few benefits. One of the most significant benefits that geographical proximity offers is logistics. A local company is familiar with the logistics of the buildings in the area and the building codes as well. Moreover, a local company nearby will allow you to conduct project meetings with ease. For example, if your project site is based in Singapore, it would make sense to work with companies like FMB Trading and Engineering, a metal fabrication company that is familiar with the building codes and the area throughout Singapore.
Industry Experience
A little bit of homework before finalizing a metal fabricator can go a long way. Before you finalize your metal fabricator, make sure you study their portfolio and assess if they have worked on similar projects before. Each industry has its unique compliance protocols and regulation procedures. A metal fabrication company with substantial experience in industries such as chemical, biotechnology, food processing and manufacturing will be familiar with these strict guidelines and specifications. Such experience and knowledge empower them to handle the most demanding requests with ease. If the customers of these fabricators are satisfied with their services, you should definitely add them to your vendor shortlist.
Resources to Handle the Project
Gauge if the hired company is equipped with resources to support your project throughout all the phases whether its design, fabrication and steel erection. If they lack the resources to carry out all the stages, are they going to outsource any phase of the project? A metal fabricator equipped with capable internal resources can offer critical insights into any nuances that your building may offer. Assessment of the fabricator’s resources will also help you gauge their capability of completing the project promptly reducing the risk of project downtime.
Safety Standards and Protocols
A fabricator that aims to deliver quality services to their clients always follows the best-practices and the protocols that come with it. Ensuring personal safety for the employee as well as the visitors is one of the most critical safety standards that successful companies follow. The safety standards and protocols they follow will help you gauge their safety score and the quality of process and execution they implement in the project. Any company that adheres to strict employee safety will adhere to strict quality control standards as well.
Materials Used
Good metal fabricators utilize materials of the highest quality. The assessment of the grade of structural stainless steel or metal alloy vital for the completion of the project gets overlooked in the early stages while choosing between the fabrication shops. Competent metal fabrication companies ensure you understand what materials they will use for your project and why.
With a diverse experience spanning across various industries since 1992, FMB Trading and Engineering have completed and managed most complex metal fabrication projects across Singapore. We have the capable in-house teams and a treasure of resources at disposal to meet customers’ needs and offer customized fabricating services. Contact FMB Trading and Engineering to discuss the details of your next metal fabrication project in Singapore.
Stainless Steel and Galvanized Steel are two of the most commonly used metal for production. They have some similar characteristics and only a few difference, especially in their composition. But their application is quite specific. But many industrialists face a dilemma when they have to choose either one of them. That’s why today we’ll explain who should use Stainless Steel and for whom, Galvanized Steel is best. But before that, you should know their significant characteristics and why they behave is such way. Both stainless steel and mild steel can choose to be cut by laser cutting, or bent by our bending and rolling machines.
Stainless Steel
Stainless steel is also known as Inox steel and it an alloy of 10.5 percent Chromium & Iron. Iron is its main component but the added Chromium creates an extra thin Chromium Oxide layer on the surface of the iron. This layer is known as the Passive Layer, which is the signature characteristics of stainless steel. This passive layer prevents any corrosion over the metal surface. And the more Chromium is mixed to the alloy, the more resistance against corrosion and oxidation becomes inevitable. Besides, there are other elements like Silicone, Manganese, and a good amount of Carbon added to the Stainless Steel. Besides, Molybdenum & Nickel are also added to enhance formidability and few other useful characteristics.
For extreme resistance to corrosion and flawless finish, Stainless steel is used in pharmaceutical and culinary industries. Stainless steel is way better than galvanized steel in terms of the surface appeal. The physical composition of stainless steel makes it long lasting and that’s why stainless steel is used in those industries where the product needs to maintain its integrity for a long time. The lack of any type of rust or layer keeps the surface smooth and shiny for a long time. In short, stainless steel is much more durable and strong than galvanized steel.
That’s why many industries use stainless steel as their raw material for production. Here are some of the most common applications of stainless steel in different industries where the manufacturers understand stainless steels potential.
Applications of Stainless Steel
Architecture: Architectural use of stainless steel is not new. For stainless steels anti-vandal characteristics and the low-cost maintenance, they are being used in modern architectural infrastructures. Mainly stainless steel is used for roofing, cladding, and facades in houses. Nowadays, stainless steel is proving itself to be quite efficient as the main structure for buildings because of its durability.
Cutlery: As mentioned earlier, stainless steel is completely rust proof and that’s why they have smooth and clean surface. Because of its shiny and appealing surface, stainless stereo is being used as the main raw material in the cutlery industry.
Power generation: The resistance again corrosion in hot temperature is a useful characteristic if stainless steel. That’s why power generation industry uses stainless steel for their ventilation shafts and in gas and steam tribune. The stainless steels with low cobalt are the ones to be used in nuclear power plants.
Chemical, Oil, gas industry: One of the industries with their constant want for stainless steel is chemical, oil, and gas processing. In this industry, starting from the tubes and pipes up to the storage tanks where gas, chemical or oil is stored, are made of stainless steel. Especially stainless steel’s 304 grade is of great importance to the industry and that’s why it is considered to be in the most important sector for stainless steel.
Automotive: Stainless steel is used in automobile industry for its low impact on the environment, low maintenance cost, and the minimum life-cycle cost. They are used to make the vehicles structures, exhaust system, catalytic converter, etc. And it seems like, the use of stainless steel in the automotive industry will most likely to increase.
Medical: Surgical tools for operation needs to stay hygienic. That means they can’t have any rust on its body. That’s why stainless steel is a preferred for Surgical equipment.
Sculpture: Metal sculptures are a form of art. This art is also backed up by the use of stainless steel. Many designers chose to use stainless steel for the sculptures because of its durability and
Bridges: Like building a structural frame, stainless steel can also be used in bridges where they need a material that is long lasting yet cost-efficient.
When you shouldn’t use Stainless Steel
In places where two pieces of steel parts may need to collide or rub together, stainless steel should not be used. Because friction breaks down the passive layer of stainless steel, making it lose the resistance to corrosion. Another place where stainless steel won’t be an ideal choice is the place with chlorine. Chlorine also breaks the oxide layer that removes stainless steels’ “stainless” part. So any places with chlorine bleach isn’t an ideal place for stainless steel to keep its integrity.
Galvanized Steel
Galvanized steel is simply a carbon steel variation that is dipped in molten zinc. The process is called dipping and that’s why galvanized steel is often referred to as dipped steel. The main benefit of galvanized steel is they are corrosion resistant like stainless steel.
Due to the added layer of Zinc, Galvanized steel is mostly used in places near water. Because the layer of zinc prevents carbon in the steel to react with salt water. So no chances of rusting. That’s why, workstations around 5 miles radius of the coast, should use galvanized steel.
Application of Galvanized Steel
Construction: Galvanized sheet metal is used for verandas, support beam, street furniture, staircases, ladders, industrial walkaways, fence, handrail, ductwork, canopies, building frames, balcony, awing, etc.
Electronics: To make computer cabesings & the precision instruments rust- and moisture-free, manufacturers use galvanized steel.
Bolts, Nuts, Nails: Galvanized steel is used to produce nails, nuts, and bolts to make them rust proof.
Piping: Galvanized pilings have been replacing lead and iron in cold water plumbing since the early 20th century. Because galvanized pilings can maintain its integrity for 70 years on average in such conditions.
Playground Equipment: Kids play equipment like swing sets, jungle gyms, bicycle racks are made of galvanized steel for its resistance against rust.
Transportation: Aircrafts and cars have a rather large demand for galvanized steel. The manufacturers use galvanized steel to make spring housing, seating, roofing, parking brakes, oil pans, fenders, hoods, etc.
Wire Rope: Another common use of galvanized steel is in high stressed wire ropes.
When you shouldn’t use Galvanized Steel?
Although galvanized steel is much effective against water and humid atmosphere, it loses its resistance against rust when it maintains regular contact with salt water. Besides, Galvanized steel nails shouldn’t be used while building a cedar fence. Because the naturally occurring enzymes in cedar react with zinc, making black stains on the fence.
Which one should you choose?
Galvanized steel and stainless is very similar when it comes to their characteristics like rust-resistance. But stainless steel is much more efficient in protecting the metal than galvanized steel because the outer zinc layer will eventually wear off.
Besides, stainless steel is much more durable than galvanized regular carbon steel. So, stainless steel is the clear champion here.
But if you have a small project at hand or want to cut a slack from your manufacturing/production cost, galvanized steel can be your pick. Because galvanized steel is much cheaper than stainless steel.steel is much cheaper than stainless steel.
People refer to quality assurance as a process of evaluating and testing the products before they leave the factory. With physical products, the process involves acceptance sampling, stress testing, statistical press control, and error proofing among many other things. The aim of this assurance test is to make sure the customers are getting what they ordered while ensuring minimal variation to keep the model’s integrity. Since people realized the precision and efficiency of laser cutting in the early 1960s, industrialists are looking for ways to implement this cutting-edge technology to their respective industries. That’s why, from clinical to aerospace use, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
The company maintains there quality by evaluating each batch of production. This way, the company can know where they are wrong and they can fix the issue before the product reach to the customer. Also, they do not make the same mistake with their products in future.
Although it may seem like quality Assurance is a way to find faulty products, actually, it is a way to make sure your customers are getting what they deserve. That’s why no company or business should avoid the quality assurance because this process can help them grow and produce better products for the customer. Here’s why Quality Assurance is important to any company.
Finding defective products
The best and most important reason why companies should take quality assurance for granted is finding the defects. Defective products are harmful to any business for two reasons. First, the customer who got your defective product will never purchase or take your service anymore. Secondly, they will make bad mouth-to-ear publicity to their friend and family. This way, you are not only losing the customers whom you delivered your faulty products but also, you are losing hundreds of potential to-be customers before you know it. Even if the fault is a minor defect, your customers will see it as a big deal. There’s no escape from it.
And even if you don’t intend to deliver a faulty or defected product, by mistake, they can reach to your customer’s hand, if quality assurance process is not maintained properly. So why loose customers when you can increase your business by delivering top-notch high-quality product to every single customer of yours. So, to find out and separate defected products, quality assurance has no other alternatives.
Culture of Quality
If your employees are dedicated then you are one of the luckiest employers out there. But, not all are as lucky as you. Some of the employees don’t pay attention to the production process and that’s why they some of the product come out as defective products. But if they are told about the quality assurance process, they will be alert and conscious. They will start producing the product with more care because they that if the products are faulty, they will get scrapped in the quality assurance process. That’s why they will become more careful and you will get quality products.
Scrap Reduction
Q Quality Assurance is a process where manufacturers can identify defective products. Some of them may only have a minor problem and some of them with major defects. The products with major defects are thrown as scrap. But the ones with minor manufacturing faults can be fixed with little time and dedication. Once they are fixed, you can deliver them to the customers. This way, you can reduce the amount of scrap product. The more you save, the more you protect your business from loss.
Time Efficiency
Quality assurance team is separate from the production unit. If there is no Quality assurance team in your factory, your valuable production unit will have to check for defects in every product they produce. This is time-consuming. Besides, it’s not an ideal use of the production force because they are much more skilled to just check the products for the defect. It is also a waste of their skills too.
But if you have an experienced quality assurance team, your production unit won’t have to look at the product to find defected items. You will save a lot of time of your skilled workforce. Besides, their experience and skills won’t be wasted on such non-productive work.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Quality assurance team makes sure that every product that comes out of your factory, is built with high-quality material and they are accurate in shape, size, type, and function. That means any product that passes through your quality assurance team is the best quality that your production team can offer. No defected product will pass from your factory, only the good ones will go on the delivery truck.
When these products are delivered to the customers, they will get the best products from your factory. This will make a good impression of your company to the customers. And if the customers are satisfied, your sale will increase automatically. They will remain loyal to your brand and this kind of mouth-to-ear publicity is the best type of publicity that any brand can get. That’s why, for client satisfaction, Quality assurance is a must.
Improved Employee Confidence
A company’s employee works very hard to give its best to the company. But they hardly realize the work they are doing is good or not as good as the company would expect. That’s why they stay in dark about the product’s quality. But if the products go through quality assurance process, they will know what’s happening with his works.
When the product goes through the quality assurance process, they are divided into good products and bad product. At the end of the day or after a batch, it is possible to calculate the ratio of good products and the scarp ones. And if the production workers are being informed about their success ratio, they will feel good and confident about their work. As a result, they will work with enthusiasm and confidence.
Bottom Line
Quality Assurance is an inseparable part of any good company. Without it, there is no actual way to figure out if the work you are doing is standardized or you’re just making scrap products.
Although it might seem like a way to identify defected products, in reality, it is an actually a way to separate the good works from the faulty ones. That’s why there shouldn’t be any question about whether quality assurance is important or not.
Since people realized the precision and efficiency of laser cutting in the early 1960s, industrialists are looking for ways to implement this cutting-edge technology to their respective industries. That’s why, from clinical to aerospace use, laser cutting is ruling over metal integrity without raising any questionable eyebrows in case of profit. Laser cutting is usually the first step of the process before it continues down the line to undergo metal bending, metal rolling, and other types of metal fabrication in stainless steel, mild steel and aluminium.
But what is this Laser Cutting that everyone is talking about?
Laser cutting is a process to cut or engrave any material precisely, using a high-powered beam. Mostly, the entire process is based on computer-controlled parameters, directed by Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machine from a vector CAD file.
The Laser cutting technology is used for many industrial purposes. Specifically, to cut metal plates, like Aluminium, Stainless Steel, Mild Steel, etc. On these types of steel, laser cutting process is very precise compared to any other metal sheet cutting process. Besides, Laser cutting process has a very small heat afterzone and also a small kerf width. That’s why it’s possible to delicate shapes and tiny holes for production.
How Laser Cutting Technology Works
Laser is a fancy acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, which is the main participant in this process, is a beam of heavily intensified light. This beam of light is formed by a single wavelength or single color.
The Laser machines use amplification and stimulation technique to transform electric energy into high density beam of light. The stimulation process happens as the electrons are excited via an external source, mostly an electric arc or a flash lamp.
The amplification process occurs within the optical resonator in the cavity, which is set between 2 mirrors. One of them is partially transmissive and the other one is reflective. The glasses allow beam’s energy to get back in the lasing medium and there it stimulates even more emissions. But if a photon isn’t aligned with machine’s resonator, the reflective and transmissive mirror do not redirect it. This ensures amplification of properly oriented photons only, thus creating a coherent beam.
The color or the wavelength of the laser that cuts through the metals depends on which type of laser is being used in the laser cutting process. But mostly, Carbon Di-oxide (CO2) gets to cut the metals which is a highly intensified beam of Infra-red part of the light spectrum.
This type of beam travels through the Laser resonator before going through metal sheet to give them shapes. But before the beam falls over the metal plates, the focused light beam undergoes the bore of a nozzle, just before it hits a surface.
But focusing the light beam is not so easy. The laser has to go through a specialized lens or any type of curved surface. This focusing part of the laser happens inside the laser-cutting tip. The focusing is crucial to this cutting process because if the beam is not focused concisely, the shape will not be as expected. The operators cross check the focus density and width many times before hitting the metal with it.
By focusing this huge beam into a single point-like area, the heat density is increased. Then the high-temperature beam, focused on a single point can cut through even the strongest of metals. This works like the magnifying glass. When the solar rays fall on the magnifying glass, the curved surface gathers them into a single point, which consequently produces extreme heat in a small area and that’s why the dry leaf under the magnifying glass burns out.
The laser cutting process work on the same principle. It gathers lights into a small area that starts rapid heating, partial or complete meltdown and even vaporization of the material completely. This heat from laser beam is so extreme that it can start a typical Oxy fuel burning process when the laser beam is cutting mild steel.
And when the laser beam hits Aluminium and Stainless steel surface, it simply melts down the metal. Then the pressurized Nitrogen blows away molten Aluminium or Steel to finish the industrial-grade clear and precise cutting.
On the CNC laser cutters, cutting tip/head is moved on the metal surface to create the desired shape. For maintaining accurate distance between the plate and the nozzle end, usually a capacitive height control system is adopted.
Maintaining this distance in this case is crucial because the distance determines where the focal area is relative to the surface of the metal plate. The precision of cutting can be diverted by lowering or raising the focal point from the surface.
Types of Laser in Laser Cutting Technology
Basically, there are 3 different types of lasers used in laser cutting process. Most common one is CO2 laser, which is suited for engraving, boring, and cutting. Then there is Neodymium (Nd) and the Neodymium Yttrium-Aluminium-Garnet or Nd:YAG for short. Nd and Nd:YAG is identical in style but have few dissimilarities in application. Where Nd is used for boring that required high energy but low repetition, Nd:YAG is used for both engraving and boring with high power.
All 3 types can be used for welding purpose.
Besides, laser cutting technology comes in 2 different formats. Gantry and the Galvanometer system. Where in Gantry system, position of laser is perpendicular to the surface and the machine directs the beam over the surface, in galvanometer system, the laser beams are repositioned by using mirrored angles.
This is the reason why gantry is comparatively slower and manufacturers usually adapt this format for prototyping. But galvanometer system is way faster. In this format, the machine can pierce through 100 feet of steel in a minute. That’s why Galvanometer system is more commonly used for full-on production work.
Designing for Laser Cutting
For automatic cutting, laser machines require CAD Vector files. These files are prepared in soft wares like InkScape, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCad, etc. These CAD (Computer Aided Design) files are exported as .eps, .pdf, .dff, and .aj formats.
Why use Laser Cutting Technology over any other process?
Laser cutting technology can be useful for both mass production and start-up order. Here’s why industrialist and entrepreneurs believe in laser cutting more than anything:
Cost efficiency
The cost efficiency of Laser cutting is something that is much rare in other metal curving technologies. In mass production, Laser cutting technology is very efficient in cutting a good chunk of manual engineering jobs, which helps you keep minimal production cost.
Time Saver
By sparing some really costly and time consuming engineering job for the laser machine, you can balance your production cost as well as save some precious time.
Precise Cutting
With laser cutting, you get even more precision in shaping your metals. The cutting technology is more efficient than plasma cutting, which is a compliment on its own. From getting exact replica of your design to smooth and clear finish, laser cutting does that for you with maximum precision.
Energy Efficiency
Apart from cutting a slack from the production cost, this cutting edge technology is also efficient in saving energy consumption while shaping the metals. While a traditional metal cutting machine will require around 40-50 KW of power, with laser cutting, you can get it done with 10 KW. That’s a lot of saving if it is being used for full-on production.
Reduced Contamination of Workpiece
Compared to other traditional metal cutting techniques, laser cutting technology is far more efficient in utilizing the most of your workpiece without wasting it while engraving, or cutting rounded edges.
Easy and Delicate Boring
Not only does it gives precise and clear-cut edges, but also, laser cutting technology is embraced when piercing through metal bodies with very small diameter. Even with such small width, you get precise holes. That’s why it’s best suited for delicate works in the factory.
Cuts almost anything in almost any shape
If you can design it, laser cutting technology can make that happen and that’s why industrialists are depending on laser machines for making prototypes for their product.
Conclusion
It’s no mystery why manufacturers constantly choose laser cutting for their prototype and their final production over any other traditional metal engraving process. With its precise cutting, smooth edge, cost and energy efficiency as well as many other profitable advantages, it seems like the use of laser cutting in different sectors and industries is not likely to decrease in next decade or so. And it is indeed a wise decision to shift from traditional expensive metal cutting technologies to this efficient process of shaping ideas. Click here to return to the main page.
