How about the shearing and punching process of precision automotive sheet metal fabrication?

Sheet metal fabrication is an important process for many industries, which are among the big manufacturers of home appliances, electronics…. Most of these products have metal casings made by cutting and bending sheet metal. Let’s look at some basic sheet metal cutting and forming processes.

The raw material of the automotive sheet metal manufacturing process is the output of the rolling process. Typically, sheet metal is sold as a standard-sized flat rectangular sheet, or in rolls if the sheet is long. So the starting point for any sheet metal crafting is to cut the right shape and select a “blank” from a larger worksheet.

Cutting in precision sheet metal fabrication is similar to the process of using scissors to cut a sheet of paper, however, the machines used are a bit different, there are two typical machines for cutting metal sheets. One is the shearing machine, which has a long Blade, used to cut straight lines; it is used to cut long sheets of metal into smaller sheets. This operation is similar to that of a decoupage machine: the sheet of metal is held on top of a hardened die, and the shearing blade cuts downward, usually driven by an electric or hydraulic punch.

Another sheet metal punch-cut tool is a punch, a piece of hard tool steel, which is punched to cut a hole in the sheet. The punch is a turret punch – the turret is a rotary tool holder that can accommodate dozens of dies of different shapes and sizes, with typical shapes being rectangular and circular. Through a series of punching, long grooves can be cut. A typical punch operation is similar to what you might have used to punch holes to hold paper in a three-ring binder.