Fabrication as an industrial term refers to the structure of a metal building with cutting, bending, and assembly.
METAL FABRICATION
Metal fabrication is a value added process that involves the construction of machinery and structures of various raw materials. A fabrication workshop will offer a job, usually based on engineering drawings, and if awarded the contract will build the product. The fabrication workshop is employed by contractors, OEMs, and vars. General projects including; Loose parts, structural frames for buildings and heavy equipment, and fences for pliers and stairs for buildings.
TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT
FABRICATION may hire or contract out steel detailers to prepare store drawings, if not supplied by customers, where metal fabrication shop are used for manufacturing. Manufacturing engineers will program the CNC machine required.
The fabrication cutting section is through sewing, sliding, or sculpting (all with manual and powerful variants);
- Burning with a hand-held torch (such as a fuel-oxy torch or a plasma torch), and through a CNC cutter (using a laser, torch, or water jet).
- Bending with hammering (manual or machine) or through press brake and similar tools.
The assembly (joining of the pieces) is through welding, binding with adhesive, nailing (rivet), threaded fasteners, or even more flexible in the form of a wrinkled lining. Steel structures and sheet metal are common starting materials for fabrication, along with flux, Welding wire, and fasteners to be joined by cut pieces. - As with other manufacturing processes, both human labor and automation are commonly used.
Products produced from (process) fabrication can be called fabrication. The end products of other common types of metalworking, such as machining, metal stamp, forging, and casting, may be similar in form and function, but such processes are not classified as fabrication
Fabrication consists or overlaps with the specialization of various metalworking:
- Fabrication and machine shops have overlapping capabilities, but fabrication stores generally concentrate on metal preparation and assembly as described above. By comparison, machine shops also cut metal, but they are more concerned with machines than parts on machine tools.
Companies that cover both work cool and machining are also common. - Blacksmith always involves fabrication, though not always called by that name.
- Products manufactured by welders often referred to as welding is an exemplary fabrication.
- Boilermakers were originally specialized in boilers, which led to their trade names, but the terms as currently used have a broader meaning.