Best Vintage: Sandblast Your Way Into New Skills

Of the many industrial materials that can be cut, shaped and welded, stainless steel is a top choice for many different applications. Indeed, stainless steel can be easily fabricated for use in a wide variety of industries.

As the demand for stainless steel products continues to rise, there has been increased pressure on manufacturers to design more efficient processes for working with this material. Luckily, manufacturers have responded. They have created unique and futuristic techniques that can achieve highly efficient stainless steel products.

Stainless steel fabrication boasts some of the most highly efficient machines and processes in the industry. Some of them include:

Advanced laser cutting techniques

Manufacturers working with stainless steel have developed futuristic laser cutting machines that can slice through steel surfaces with high accuracy and minimal energy consumption. For example, laser cutters such as the fibre laser, plasma laser and tube laser are capable of slicing through steel, aluminium and carbon surfaces that are several centimetres thick.

They produce minimal waste and operate via an automated motion to essentially eliminate human error. This has also allowed laser cutters to improve the output of stainless steel products.

Highly efficient welding processes

The use of laser technology has also been applied to welding techniques in steel fabrication. By using a laser during welding, steel surfaces can achieve precise welds that are strong and have minimal distortion. As a result, the finished product will be easier to apply towards many different uses.

Stainless steel manufacturers have also continued to be at the forefront of infusing creative and innovative methods into the fabrication process. To ensure increased accuracy and better output, more industries are using the following techniques:

3D modelling to ensure accurate measurements

During fabrication, a measurement that's is only a few millimetres off can result in costly defects to final products. Manufacturers have moved from using tape measures to employing 3D modelling techniques in order to collect accurate measurements.

A stainless steel surface can be modelled on the factory floor and the machine programmed to exercise cuts along specific points. This reduces the amount of time that personnel have to take to individually slice through stainless steel surfaces.

Using automation and robotics to achieve more accurate results

The increased use of automated processes in stainless manufacturing has given rise to robotics. Robotics is now being used to carry out batch welding of stainless steel.

This means that standardised materials such as pipes, vehicle parts, and tubes can be produced in larger quantities and with high efficiency.