Introduction to sheet metal services Sheet metal is a comprehensive cold working process for sheet metal (thickness usually less than 6mm), including blanking, bending, drawing, forming, welding, forging and riveting.

Its remarkable feature is that the thickness of the same part is the same. The sheet has the characteristics of light weight, high strength, electrical conductivity (can be used for electromagnetic shielding), low cost, and good mass production performance. At present, sheet metal has been widely used in electronic appliances, communications, automotive industry, medical equipment and other fields. For example, sheet metal is an essential part in computer cases, mobile phones and MP3 players. As sheet metal applications become more and more widespread, the design of sheet metal parts has become a very important part of the product development process. 

Product design engineers must master the design skills of sheet metal parts so that the designed sheet metal can not only meet the requirements of product function and appearance, but also make the manufacturing of stamping molds simple and low-cost. Common processes for sheet metal include: stamping, bend forming, punching, bending, crimping, dewarping, deep drawing, expansion, crimping and sealing, water forming, incremental sheet forming or ISF, hot stamping, laser cutting and photochemical processing (PCM or photochemical processing), perforation, roll forming, rolling, spinning, water jet cutting, wheel pressing, etc. Unlike injection molded parts, complex sheet metal parts often require a different combination of processes to produce smoothly, much like metal cutting. Therefore, a complex sheet metal part often requires multiple sets of equipment and molds. 

As a mechanical engineer, you need to understand the main manufacturing processes of sheet metal parts. Because each production method has different requirements for sheet metal.