Picture this:
You are a Furniture Designer at your local coffee shop enjoying your daily ritual. The ambiance of the spot is appropriately buzzing, patrons sip and chat and type amid a space filled with a purposeful aesthetic. Dense hardwood tables are supported by heavy industrial fabricature, lending a comfortable weight to the seating area. The space’s walls are lined with tall steel standoffs. Geometric patterns have been laser cut across their surface leaving them in a latticework that the eye dances over. The materials for both table and relief lend a playful, textural baseline for the entire experience. You turn back to your drink inspired, sip, your coffee goes down easy in this atmosphere.
Later that day you find yourself wondering just how those statement pieces came to be. What kind of building blocks were used to arrive at their final form? You understand the wood involved. As a Designer, wood is easy to relate to. It’s organic, it moves and breathes, its familiar structurally and aesthetically. You probably know of several go-to woodshops right off the top of your head.
But steel?
Steel evokes images of gruff men in leather coveralls, soot-black faces stern while sparks fly as they hammer hot iron over their anvils. Steel is sharp and unyielding, elemental in shades of blue, black and silver. Steel is not like wood. Unless you’ve really worked with it before, you have no true reference for it. However, what you DO have after leaving that cafe is a design in metal you now want realized.
But what kind of facilities work with material like that? Where do you even begin?
Enter your local Metal Product Manufacturer. As an industry we are situated between the regional Material Houses that supply raw stock upstream to manufacturing facilities like ours, and downstream from the various Designers and Design Firms that need parts in metal made to spec. We cater to clientele who cannot tool, process or finish metal stock on their own. In essence, we sell our services and abilities more than any one part or product line.
Steel and aluminum are the most common materials used, and finished parts perform countless roles in a wide range of domestic and international marketplaces. Pieces can be architectural and artistic, utilized in part or whole by our surging Maker Culture as componentry in boutique furniture, interior design, home and office decor etc. Then there are the behind-the-scene utilitarian needs we fill for merchandisers and other clients. Examples from this sector might include products like the steel skeletons that support point-of-purchase displays at your local grocer, to stainless steel wire sterilization trays used in hospitals to clean medical instruments. The industry is exciting to work in since it can be either broad or niche depending on constantly changing client needs.
Despite the wide spectrum of clients and markets, all jobs first start out in similar ways and branch from there.
Here are a few short clips illustrating how the manufacturing process works:
Steel and aluminum material enter the shop in several basic forms. You have Bar, Sheet, Tubing and Wire:
After the base material has been brought to a state where it can be worked, it then undergoes various operations like shearing, cutting, and forming to refine the piece further:
Sometimes very little work is required to get a part finish-ready, but often a part needs further processing using one or more high tech operations like Laser Cutting or Automated Turret Pressing:
After the part has been shaped by all the previous processes, it is then picked up by teams of welders to fuse into it’s rough final shape. For big projects with intricate welds, the Robotic Welding Arm is put to use. Once finished, any cleanup work is done by Grinders and Sanders to get the fused surfaces flush if a clean look is required.
Once the piece is totally fabricated, it won’t last long out in the elements. The metal itself is still raw and in danger of oxidization and rusting. Since they are raw, most pieces are then sent through a protective process known as “Powdercoating.” Parts are first hung and sent through a wash to clean any oil or grit left by fabricating, then sprayed with a special dry powdered coating that adheres via static charge to the surface of the metal. After getting coated, the parts are then sent through an oven and the powder is baked/melted on. Like pottery glazing in a kiln. Depending on the formula, the coatings can be any numbers of colors or finishes.
So there you have it. The process pictured above takes us from raw material to finished piece and from there the parts are destined for whichever marketplace they were designed for. From boutique furniture to clinical sterilization trays, the applications and designs that can utilize metal forms are virtually endless. By reading this and becoming more familiar with the material, I hope some of you Makers out there are inspired to design and incorporate more metalwork into your own products.
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Images + Videos by Hamrock Inc.