What’s the Difference Between Metal Fabrication and Metal Welding?

October 27, 2016

If you find yourself in need of metal fabrication services, you may wonder, “Why not just look for a welder?” It’s important to realize that there is a distinct difference between metal fabrication and welding. While welding can certainly be extremely important in the metal fabrication process for many projects, welding is just one operation in the overall field of metal fabrication.

If you just hire a welder, you are simply hiring someone who knows how to join two pieces of metal together using heat. Naturally, there are many metal parts you can’t fabricate without this, but it’s just a part of the process. Metal fabrication involves a number of stages and potential processes, including:

Design and Layout

Before you can cut, weld or bend a particular piece of metal into a particular shape, you first need to know what that shape is going to be. A metal fabrication company creates the design for each metal part and lays things out to be sure that everything will fit together and be suitable for the finished product.

Cutting, Bending and Shaping

There’s more to metal fabrication than just joining two pieces of metal together into one. If your piece of metal is too big, precise cutting may be required. If you need a pipe or tube with a particular bend, you need a bending machine — not a welder. Shaping metal into the right parts requires a variety of skills and equipment.

Other Metal Fabrication Processes

There are plenty of metalworking processes that may not be used for every metal fabrication job, but can be crucial to others. These include riveting, turret punching, metal stamping, bolting, drilling and sanding, among others.

Fortunately, Fairlawn Tool, Inc. does it all when it comes to metal fabrication, including CNC turret punching and both manual and robotic welding. Fairlawn has experienced technicians working at each and every phase of the metal fabrication process, from the initial design to the final assembly and all the welding, bending and shaping that you need in between.

This allows Fairlawn to provide parts for a wide variety of industries, including agriculture, construction, food service, telecommunications, media equipment and even military applications. And due to having access to some of the most highly trained employees and some of the best metal fabrication equipment available, we are able to make parts for your company that are lighter, more durable and more efficient – all while helping you save on costs.

To find out more about how Fairlawn Tool, Inc. can help with a wide range of metal fabrication needs, get in touch with us today.

Previous ArticleWhy Choose an Iso 9001 Certified Manufacturer? Next ArticleThe Benefits of Cast Iron Platen Tables