Sheet Metal Fabrication — Laser Cutting, Bending & Welding

What we machine on this process

Sheet metal fabrication is our route for enclosures, brackets, panels, chassis and guards: parts cut from sheet, formed to shape and joined into assemblies. We cover laser cutting, punching, bending, forming, welding and riveting, then machine the features that must be exact — threads, bores and mating faces — on our CNC machining floor to ±0.01 mm. A fabricated enclosure with machined mounting bosses leaves as one part from one supplier in Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, China. When the assembly also needs turned or milled components — standoffs, hinge pins, threaded bosses — those are machined on the same floor and shipped together, so the enclosure arrives complete. For high-volume formed parts that justify a die, see metal stamping.

Materials and finishes

We fabricate carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminium, brass, copper and titanium sheet, with grade and temper agreed in DFM for strength, spring and corrosion. The same drawing then carries tapping and finishing — deburring, plating, anodising and other treatments are arranged through our vetted partner network, managed under one quality process. Because material and finish sit on one drawing and one order, you are not coordinating a cut blank from one supplier and a finish from another. For solid part materials, see our materials page.

Size, tolerance and capacity limits

Laser-cut and bent features follow the flat pattern and bend plan; anything that must be exact is machined after forming to ±0.01 mm, with general dimensions to ISO 2768-m unless the drawing states otherwise. Secondary machining is limited by our 800 × 500 mm milling envelope, and the floor runs over 100,000 parts per month. Sheet size, thickness and bend length are evaluated per drawing, so you get a firm size and capacity answer in the quote rather than after the blank is cut. We work from your flat pattern or develop it from the formed drawing, using the K-factor for each material so the blank bends to size rather than being trimmed to fit.

Documents and shipping

Cutting, bending, joining and machining are managed as one job from our factory in Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, China. Where a step sits better with a specialist — a large-format laser bed, a plating line — it runs through our vetted partner network, managed under one quality process, with a single drawing, a single contact and a single delivery. Parts ship with a material certificate (MTR) and pre-shipment photos, so you can see the finished assembly before it is packed. Send a drawing through the request a quote form and we lay out the full route in one reply.

Industries we support

Fabricated parts feed general machinery, automation, electronics enclosures, instrumentation and consumer hardware — anywhere a formed metal enclosure or structure must meet machined fittings. The common pattern is a folded enclosure with a machined mounting plate or threaded inserts, delivered as one assembly. For parts better made from a cast blank, see die casting; for plastic housings, see injection molding. We also join fabricated panels to cast or machined frames, so a mixed-materials assembly is still one purchase.

Design guidelines for cost and manufacturability

Design for a bend that the material can hold: keep bend radii consistent and matched to thickness and grain, and do not place a hole, slot or tapped hole inside the bend zone. Use the K-factor per material to keep flat patterns accurate, and radius inside corners rather than leaving sharp internal cuts. At a general level, the inside bend radius is tied to the sheet thickness and the grain direction, and the flat pattern grows by the bend allowance — that is where the K-factor enters. Keep tolerances honest — a ±0.01 mm callout on a folded edge drives cost up for no functional gain; reserve it for machined faces. Send the drawing and we return DFM feedback within 24 hours, including where a bend, a hole or a joint can be simplified.