What does a true full-service metal shop look like? What are the metal fabrication services it provides? A quick tour ought to shed some light.
Design to Delivery: An All-in-One Approach to Metal Fabrication Services
It all begins well before the machinery and first piece of metal meet. A full-service metal fabricator can be involved in:
- Designing the final product for the most efficient (and least expensive) fabrication
- Selecting the right kind of metal for the job
What a Full-Service Fabricator Offers
Once design and material selection are complete, your project might need any of these processes to fully realize its potential.
A metal shop that has most or all of these capabilities, and maybe more, will help:
- Reduce costs
- Shorten lead times
- Eliminate communication problems between shops
All of the capabilities below are offered under one roof at Blackstone:
1. Precision Laser Cutting
Call it metal surgery with light. Just as lasers can be used in amazingly precise surgical procedures, so to can they cut metal to extremely tight tolerances compared with traditional methods.
2. Custom Sheet Metal Fabrication
Different projects require different specifications. A full-service metal shop accommodates custom specs on virtually a daily basis.
The aim is to produce a product that best matches the customer’s needs, even if it’s off the beaten path. One-size-fits-all doesn’t cut it.
3. Sheet Metal CNC Punching
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) simply means that computers are used to control the tools of the trade. Punching controlled by computers is accurate and consistent, which means the end product benefits significantly in quality.
Highly repeatable processes like this one are great for time efficiency.
4. Spot Welding and Assembly
Spot welding is just what it sounds like. The welds are part of an assembly process, and it’s very important that they be precise and of the highest quality.
Spot welding is used to assemble everything from metal buckets to locomotives and beyond. No matter what the product, the quality it displays is determined largely by the precision of the spot welds.
5. Grinding & Surface Prep
The products of metal fabrication often require some kind of coating, or they have to possess a specific surface quality -- a certain degree of smoothness, perhaps. That’s where grinding and surface prep come in.
We encourage you to include in your specs whether or not aesthetics is important to your end product!
6. Metal Bending & Forming
Precise bends and curves in metal are not easy to attain -- unless you have in-house experts with decades of experience. A full-service metal fabricator will have both the skill and the machines on hand.
7. Welding & Joining
How is it possible to join two pieces of sheet metal? After all, they’re flat and the edges are thin.
The simple answer: laser or resistance seam welding. These techniques have to be part of the repertoire of a full-service metal fabricator.
8. Large Assemblies
Need a custom vehicle or any other large product? A full-service fabricator will have the ability to accommodate just about any size job.
It takes the right space, people and equipment. Blackstone has a 250,000-sq.-ft. facility. You could literally drive a train into our building. (Just let us know ahead of time, please.)
9. Painting & Finishing
No metal fabricator can be called full-service without the ability to paint, powder coat, and otherwise finish end products. Blackstone offers painting and powder coating in various colors.
10. Delivery
A full-service metal shop can save customers considerable costs by helping them arrange delivery by the most efficient means possible.
More Questions?
Have more questions about metal fabrication services? Just ask. Chances are, a manufacturer can do more than you think -- or at least can help you find the right person to talk to.
Use this little tour as a guide, ask around, and find the fabrication shop that fills the bill. After that, the proof is in the performance.
