One of the most common forms of processing and fabricating metal is the shearing process. It’s quite simple—using a machine or tool, workers can cut down sheet metal of various types to size for the application it will be used for.
The metal that will be cut gets affixed in place, and a squaring arm comes down to position the cuts. While straight cuts are most common, you can also create angled cuts with angle gauges. The metal will be placed between two blades: an upper and lower. One of the blades remains stationary in most cases, while the other moves.
There are a variety of reasons why a company in Phoenix, AZ would choose to use the shearing process for its application. Here are a few examples of some shearing advantages you should be familiar with:
- Straight lines: If you know you need to cut across material in straight lines, shearing is a great choice, especially if you’re using flat sheet stock. The squaring arm makes it easy to cut at perfect 90-degree angles and at a flat, level direction.
- Clean cuts: Certain other types of metal cutting can result in jagged, ugly cuts. With shearing, you can trust the result will be a crisp, smooth edge rather than one that’s loaded with burs. Ultimately, you’ll get a much cleaner and straighter edge than you would with a process like torch cutting.
- Good for soft metals: Because you don’t have to apply heat to cut the metal, you don’t have to worry about any chip formation, burning or melting. This means you’ll be able to perform metal shearing even on softer types of metals, as the process is performed with the metal cold or at room temperature.
- Highly efficient use of material: One of the biggest reasons why manufacturers love metal shearing is that it produces very little in the way of waste. There’s basically no kerf produced in the process, which means no loss of material and minimal waste for you to worry about. This means you’re getting the best value out of the materials.
- Versatility: Shearing allows you to cut lengths of material that are relatively small, as the blades can be mounted at an angle. This significantly cuts down on the shearing force you need to employ for any given application. Shearing can also be done with a wide range of part diameters, which makes it cost effective for operations in which you’re producing up to thousands of pieces every single hour on the job. So long as the length of the material is greater than three quarters of an inch, you’ll find you’ll be able to shear materials of just about any size.
While there are some limitations to the shearing process, these advantages make it a highly sought-after form of metal fabrication for certain applications. To learn more about the metal shearing process and the various shearing advantages in Phoenix, AZ you should know about, contact the team at Metal Pro Inc. today.