The garage at my house is practically a bike shop. For five roommates we have eight to nine bikes, a moped and a broken down motorcycle. Bikes hang from the ceiling on hooks and the shelves are filled with parts for broken bicycles. The only thing we need to complete our little “shop” is a unicycle and a tandem bike.
When I think of roll bars I instantly think of the go-kart the protagonist in Heavy Weights so desperately wanted to race. These kinds of karts differ from the solo karts found in race tracks and one of the best Nintendo 64 games ever, Mario Kart. Although, since the racers in Mario Kart are constantly rolling over due to banana peels and turtle shells you’d think they would consider investing in a roll cage. Anyways, the go-karts that require roll bars usually have two seats allowing the driver to terrorize a passenger by speeding through the wilderness, hopefully without flipping over and testing the tube bending quality of the roll bars.
When I was in high school I joined the school band as a member of the percussion section. I enjoyed the freedom of being in the percussion section. I could walk around in back, and play a number of different instruments as opposed to being contained to one. Most percussionists prefer playing the snare drum and a few the marimbas or xylophone. I however, favored the tubular pipe bells and tympanis. I liked the low boom and ring both instruments produced. Tubular pipe bells have been popularized from the Christmas classic, Carol of the Bells. The vertical bells are also used in the theme of The Exorcist and Futurama. The noise these bells produce sounds similar to church bells.
Titanium is one of the strongest metals used in the world today. Titanium is a favored metal for a variety of industrial uses because the metal is just as strong or stronger than steel, but it is lighter, more flexible, and more durable than steel. Titanium spinnings are flat discs of titanium that are spun on a lathe to create 3D metal shapes, including light bases, hub caps, light boxes, and a variety of other products.
There are several types of broaching methods. Today, I am interested in a certain type and that is spline cutting. This method is something I have always looked over but have always noticed. Without spline cutting, however we would not have any gears. Gears make the world go round, literally. Gears can be found in our cars, any mechanical machine and various other places. There are several ways broaching makes spline cutting possible. Mill machines and lathes are both capable of spline cuts. This cutting method can result in making a male spline or female spline. To add, there are several different ways to get the results of this broaching process, those types are as follows: parallel key spline, involute spline, crowned splines, serrations, helical splines and ball splines.
Roll forming may sound like a science experiment, but it is actually a simple metal bending process that takes place on rollers. Roll forming services have been creating rolled metal for over 100 years, and the shaped metal is highly useful in today’s industrial world.
Roll forming is the process of creating metal shapes by passing sheets of metal between several different rollers. Depending on the size of the rollers, the number of rollers, and the position of the rollers, a custom roll former can create a large variety of shapes, including channels, rings, trim pieces, and structural supports.
Metal stamping is used in many different industries to produce a wide range of parts and products, each requiring specific tooling means. In my last blog I talked about 3D visualization and the designing of dies used to stamp very large components for automobiles. Today, I’d like to take things in the opposite direction by exploring precision metal stamping, particularly micro-precision stamping.
I feel as if the terms “pipes” and “tubes” are often used synonymously. Are the terms really interchangeable or do they both refer to separate parts for different applications? From what I’ve noticed, in the industrial setting at least, there are a few major differences when referring to tubes than referring to pipes. Basically the main difference between the two is tubes are typically used as structural supports whereas pipes are vessels used to transfer fluids and gases. All other differences revolve around this point.
In pipe fabrication, the bend quality of the pipes is extremely important. If the bends are weak or damaged, then the entire integrity of the pipe is compromised. When pipe bend problems occur, it is extremely important to fix the issue as soon as possible. Many factories think that expensive repairs and complicated machine adjustments are necessary to fix these issues, but before you rush to try a complicated solution, there are three simple areas to check that can help resolve the problem without expensive repairs or complicated maintenance procedures. If your pipe fabrication bends are not up to the proper quality, check the following areas before trying any other repair methods:
The perforated metal screen is typically used in architecture and construction settings. The metal is used for partition, elevator cabinets, balconies, railings, building facades, laths for plastering, and much more. Perforated metal screens also have some use in industrial settings, mainly as shields from flying sparks, dust, or other contaminants. Perforated metal screens can provide increased safety in factory settings without compromising on visibility or overall design.
Now that the weather is finally staying consistently warm in my neck of the woods, over the weekend the time had come to see what sort of damage the winter may have doled out to my window and door screens. For whatever reason, the screens on the sliding glass doors in the downstairs always seem to take much more of a beating. I’m guessing it’s because of drifting snow and things like that that don’t really affect window screens. Nevertheless, the majority of the screens survived winter pretty well, but as I expected the screen for the downstairs slider was not as lucky.
Perforated metal sheets are a type of metal, typically aluminum or steel, that have a variety of holes punched into the sheets of metal. The holes can vary in size from tiny pin pricks to large holes big enough to stick pipes or other objects through. Many industries use perforated metal sheets in a variety of uses, including drains, filters and strainers, electronic enclosures, building dividers, and outdoor structures.
I’m not sure you can go through life without encountering some form of perforated metal. Perforated metal makes up the screens for our doors and windows, our colanders, even our tea strainers. One application of perforated metal I was surprised to see was in the recording industry. Some studios have implemented using perforated metal in their sound insulation in order to make recording more efficient.
Perforated architectural metal panels are a kind of metal panel designed for use in construction. The perforated metal panels provide a variety of aesthetic and stability benefits to an industrial or commercial construction project. Construction firms use metal panels for a variety of construction projects because the metal is durable, effective at insulating the building, and provide a unique aesthetic appearance that is attractive and unusual.
There is such a plethora of products that usher forth from the womb of metal stamping companies that they are not businesses that struggle with finding customers. Because the manufacturing equipment that produces small metallic parts are so expensive to purchase, run and maintain, it makes more sense for a number of industries to go and get their metal stamping done at a company who does it well. Metal stamping companies do not have it easy though. Many demands are placed on them by their customers, and they have to be perfect on multiple levels to keep their business thriving.
Sheet metal rings are exactly what they sound like- rings made from sheet metal. Many home-based jewelry makers create rings out of sheet metal that they can polish and embellish to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind creations. If you are interested in making your own inexpensive jewelry, starting with sheet metal rings is a good place to start. You can also use metal rings for a variety of other uses, such as for curtain hangers, 3D art pieces, napkin rings, earrings, necklaces, and anything else you can think of. Experiment with larger and smaller rings for a variety of uses.
There are a variety of ways people employ in shaping metal. Some of the more popular methods include hydroforming, stamping, die casting, and metal spinning. Like any means of forming and re-forming metal, each of these techniques has benefits as well as disadvantages. Metal spinning is one of the more profitable processes to shape metal, as it is more cost effective than hydroforming or stamping in the long run, and it’s a great method to use if you need to make large quantities of metal items. But using spun metal isn’t only restricted to corporations or the industrial sector.
Right now, the aluminum extrusion industry is looking better than it has in several years. Extruded aluminum parts are in higher demand than ever right now-thanks in part to the automotive industry and its quest for lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Rarely is the more expensive, and often more attractive, wooden furniture used in the average office space. Instead, cheap but effective is the goal, which can sometimes be just as attractive as its more expensive wooden counterpart. Furniture made from extruded metal is most common, because the metal extrusion process is less expensive than other metal fabrication processes and the products crafted with it can therefore be sold for a lower price. Extruded metal also has a number of other positive characteristics, specifics of which depend on the type of metal being extruded.