It’s hard to believe we’ve been blogging regularly for nearly two years now! We love using this space to keep customers informed about shop updates and Design for Manufacturing (DFM) tips that can save them time and money.
Today, we’re rounding up seven can’t-miss blogs from 2022 on designing for sheet metal fabrication services.
3D models play a critical role in most manufacturing processes.
Customers use 3D models to visualize a product before it becomes tangible and engineer load calculations to prove a product will meet specific design criteria—to name a couple of common use cases.
Sheet metal fabricators rely on 3D models for different but equally important reasons. A big one is programming machines to create customers’ parts as quickly and accurately as possible.
For this reason, we encourage all customers to provide manufacturable models when requesting metal fabrication services.
When your custom fabrication requires metal tubes or structural members, tube laser cutting is the best bet for speed, precision, flexibility, and accuracy.
However, as with any manufacturing method, there are standard best practices to follow when requesting tube laser cutting services:
When you need a high-quality sheet metal part turned around quickly and cost-effectively, it helps to make your precision sheet metal fabrication partner’s job as easy as possible.
We share our industry secrets for designing sheet metal parts any shop can make in their sleep:
Read more about each industry secret.
Nobody likes an ugly part!
One thing that sets Ameritex apart from your typical garage shop is that we can make your custom fabrications look just as good as they function. But it’s hard to achieve a cosmetic finish when the design itself doesn’t support that goal.
Here are four simple guidelines for avoiding ugly parts when you request sheet metal fabrication services:
Read more about each guideline.
Corner treatments serve essential functional, mechanical, and cosmetic purposes, so it’s important to be mindful of best practices for using them.
We take a closer look at the different corner treatments you should know about before designing your next part:
Read more about each corner treatment.
When designers and engineers request quotes for metal fabrication services, our standard practice is to conduct a Design for Manufacturability (DFM) review to ensure that each part and assembly can flow through our shop efficiently.
In most cases, we identify opportunities to optimize designs to improve quality, cost, and lead time. Unfortunately, we don’t always have enough time to make these adjustments without impacting customers’ delivery timelines.
You deserve the best custom fabrications, and we love building perfect parts. That’s why we recommend involving us early in the design phase instead of waiting until you’re ready for a quote.
Read more about involving your sheet metal fabricator in the design phase.
In our experience providing sheet metal fabrication services for NEMA 3R, NEMA 4, and NEMA 4X enclosures, we’ve identified helpful tips and best practices that we want to pass on to our customers:
When you need sheet metal fabrication, tube laser cutting, or precision machining services, Ameritex is here to deliver. Request a quote for your next project!