It all begins well before the machinery and first piece of metal meet. A full-service metal fabricator can be involved in:
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:
All of the capabilities below are offered under one roof at Blackstone:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.)
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.
A full-service metal shop can save customers considerable costs by helping them arrange delivery by the most efficient means possible.
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.