CAMM Metals Blog

Are metal welding costs draining your fabrication project’s budget? It’s possible that your fabrication partner isn’t doing everything possible to optimize their welding processes and find ways to minimize your expenses. It’s a difficult balancing act. After all, the end product’s structure and safety is dependent on the strength of the welds. Any welding defects will result in additional costs for your business. Check in with your metal fabrication partner to find out if they offer any of the following welding solutions to drive down your project costs (without sacrificing quality).

When you're embarking on your next metal fabrication project, it's important to consider which type of steel you will use. Selecting the appropriate type of steel for a metal fabrication project is a critical and less-mentioned decision.

Before you even begin to contemplate between which individual grade of steel you'll choose, you first have to determine what type of steel to use. Typically, the choice is between carbon steel or stainless steel.

Continue reading to learn the primary differences between carbon and stainless steel.

It’s not an area that gets a lot of coverage with the general public, but when it comes to design and manufacturing, in a lot of ways, “the future” arrived a couple of decades ago, and has been heavily relied on ever since. Prior to the use of CAD models in many industries, the ways that engineers, architects, designers and many other experts came up with ideas was through the use of schematics and blueprints. CAD models changed all that for the better.

When creating a design for metal fabrication, it’s important to make sure your fabricator will be able to easily translate the design into your desired product. In order to create a useful design, there are certain considerations you should take into account. Here are some tips to optimize your design for metal fabrication. 

When searching for a company to handle your metal fabrication project, cost is a major factor. You might be tempted to choose the lowest quote you find in order to save money. However, cheaper isn’t always better with these quotes. Unfortunately, you’ll often find that the lowest quote, especially a quote significantly lower than all other quotes, will cost you more in the long run. Here are some of the reasons you shouldn’t always choose the cheapest metal fabrication quote.

Finding the right laser cutting partner can be tricky due to a wide variety of factors. Often, laser cutting service partners are selected based solely on their ability to provide a low cost solution. While cost remains a critical factor in any decision, it’s important to consider the company’s overall capabilities, experience, and quality. This blog post aims to help procurement professionals develop useful questions to ask potential partners.

Aluminum and steel are pillars of the metal manufacturing industry. Both aluminum and steel are synthetic alloys; in other words, they don’t appear in nature and must be created using other basic elements. Aluminum must go through ha few phases before it appears like the shiny silver metal that you’re familiar with. The base ingredient of aluminum is a mineral called bauxite, which is mined primarily in tropical areas. The bauxite is ground into a thick paste called alumina, which is then smelted with molten cryolite and shocked with electricity. The ions separate, and the residual liquid cools and becomes aluminum.

Finishing is the final step in preparing metal products for use, a crucial component  for any metal fabrication project. Finishing helps to make products more resistant to corrosion, while providing higher electrical, chemical or tarnish resistance.

Beyond that, finishing adds additional durability and makes metal surfaces look their best. For most projects, a product’s finish is determined by its intended use. This post will provide a brief overview of the different types of metal finishing, while offering several factors to consider when choosing a finishing method.

Fabricated metal products are very common, however, few people understand how the metal fabrication process works. In fact, many people think of welding when they hear metal fabrication, despite the fact that welding is only one process that metal fabricators use. This post will examine several different factors of metal fabrication to help educate you before the next situation when you need to rely on the services of a metal fabrication company

So, what exactly is metal fabrication?

Simply put, Metal fabrication is a manufacturing process used to shape metal into parts or end products. CAMM Metals uses a wide variety of techniques to shape sheet metal into a part or good. Many metal fabricators use sheet metal, which can be up to .25 inches thick. Fabricators then convert this sheet metal into products or tools. We cut, fold, or shape metal to create the finished part.

Although metal fabrication can be used to mass produce products, it can also be used to create large runs of customized fabricated metal products. These projects typically include the design and fabrication of customized metal parts to fit a businesses’ needs. We’ve covered some of our custom projects in the past, like a custom fuel pump test stand and a custom beer tank (insert links).

Adhering to the guidelines associated with design for manufacturing (DFM) ensures that a sheet metal design flows through the processes without issues. This ultimately helps to improve lead times and lowers the overall project cost. Fortunately, there are numerous techniques you can use to increase the chances your sheet metal part is ready for manufacturing.