Our entire modern world is built on the back of metalworking and fabrication. However, many people don’t have a clear understanding of metalworking machinery, and they don’t know how manufacturing in places like Huntsville, Alabama, actually works. They don’t even know how they can find used metalworking machines to get projects off the ground. Used machinery can be very good, and this is one of the methods to get started. Huntsville, Alabama, is home to some of the most interesting manufacturing companies in the entire world. A company like the Pearl Equipment Company understands what fabrication is all about. They help you find the metalworking machinery you need to get started.
CNC Machines
CNC machines form the backbone of the majority of manufacturing in Huntsville and other places around the country. However, used machinery can be expensive, and you need to have a clever understanding of how to make these machines work for you. A CNC machine is a computerized mill. You create the design in a computer-aided design program, and then you can upload it to the machine. It then automatically creates the part you want without any human intervention. These machines can start at about $10,000, but they can go into the millions. The majority of precision metalworking that is done today is created by these machines. However, used machinery of this type is very expensive. The main reason for this is that these machines are so valuable that it does not make sense for a company to get rid of them.
CNC Machines
Lathes
The lathe is one of the most important metalworking machinery in the history of the world. You can find these machines from the Pearl Equipment Company. This machine is used to turn a cylindrical piece of metal, and you can then use various tools to shape the metal how you want. It is said that this is the only metalworking equipment that can be used to create itself. In fact, you could create all other metalworking equipment from a lathe. It is one of the first pieces of metalworking equipment to be invented.
Milling Machines
The most commonly used machine today is the mill. It works exactly the same as a CNC machine would, and it makes up the bulk of all used metalworking machines. It is a machine that will do a good job for you, but you have to understand how to configure it and accurately mill things out to the correct specifications. It features a rotating head that simply Mills whatever you put before it. There are more complicated versions, and the CNC mill is controlled by a computer. This makes the process more accurate than a human could ever get things.
Stamping and Presses
Another important part of fabrication technology is the press and the stamp. These are some of the most important tools in the aerospace industry, and they were critical to winning World War II. There are a few such machines in places like Huntsville, and they aren’t as common today as before. However, it is important to understand how they work to utilize them to the fullest. A stamp or a press simply exerts a large force on a piece of metal to form it into another shape. The more force you can exert, the larger the part can be. The largest presses were often used to create aircraft and weapons. These presses were considered the most important pieces of technology for nations fighting in this war. Today, these presses are most often used in the automobile industry. Many parts of the car are pressed to the correct shape, and it is a much more efficient process than other options.
Robotic Welding
Another important thing in metalworking and fabrication is welding. However, manual welding is applicable to almost every single industry in the world. The overwhelming majority of all machines have some sort of weld to keep two pieces of metal together. A robotic welder is the same thing, but it uses complicated electronics to do the welding without any human intervention. These machines can often handle much more intricate and complicated wells, and they can do a much better job than most humans could. The main benefits they bring are throughput and efficiency.
Rolls for Bending
Sometimes you just need to take a bar and bend it to some specification. This is where bending rolls come in. It is a machine that applies a set amount of pressure to a cylindrical piece of metal. You can then use it to bend the metal to whatever shape you want. You can use this machine to create complicated configurations, and it is useful in many different industries. You can find the tools and equipment like this at the Pearl Equipment Company.
Boring Mills
Another thing you want to do in metal fabrication is to make a hole in a piece of metal. This is where Boring machines come in. There are many used metalworking machines like this, and it is essential you understand which one will be the right choice for you. The main thing about this machine is that it is used for making large holes. You can make holes with a lathe, so for the most part, you won’t need this machine. However, if you are in an industry where you need to make many large holes, this machine will come in handy for these processes.
Coil Handler
Sometimes you have a large coil of wires that you need to untangle or manage. This is where coil handling equipment comes into effect. It enables you to manage a lot of different types of coils, and it makes the process a lot easier than if you had to do it manually. These machines cost the premium, so try to hang onto them as much as possible.
Cutting to the Right Length Machines
Sometimes you want to have metal cut to specific lengths, which is where this machine comes in. It gives you an accurate way to measure and cut metals without any problems. It mainly works on sheet-metal, but there are certain machines to work on other types of metals as well. You can continually feed the metal into this machine, or you can do it manually as well.
Punching Equipment
Punching equipment is used to put holes into a flat sheet of metal. It might seem that a boring machine would do this job, but these are fundamentally different devices. The punch is used for creating many small holes into sheet-metal, as you would do to manufacture a computer motherboard.
Equipment for Finishing
No metalworking will be complete if it is not finished. You need to have a machine to clean up the finished product, so you can present it to customers. This is where these types of equipment come into play. They are used for polishing and cleaning up rough edges and other problems that could happen with a machine. It is fundamentally there to make sure that it is presentable to potential customers.
Grinding
Grinding equipment is also quite common in the fabrication industry. They come in multiple sizes, but they are most commonly handheld. You use grinding machines to remove edges and to help polish the machine you are working with.
Saws
Eventually, you will need to cut metals down into shorter lengths. You have hand and machine saws. You also have tabletop saws, which are extensively used in many types of metal fabrication projects. You can find the right software you need on the Pearl Equipment Company website.
Learn More
It can be difficult finding the right metal fabrication equipment in Huntsville. That is why you need to find a company like Pearl that will understand your needs and help you find the equipment needed to get the job done.