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02 January 2013

How Steel is Manufactured

By Sandra Church


The construction industry depends on steel fabrication.Various steel products are used in different types of construction projects.

Machines that are used to produce steel products are known as steel fabricatorshowever, despite the absolute importance of steel in construction, very few people know about the fabrication process.However, it is possible that you, yourself, have wondered about the fabrication process and want to know what it is.The following should be of interest to you.

What Kind Of Products Are Made Through This Process?

There is no limit to the amount of users that steel has. In fact, the inherent versatility of steel allows it to be used in different types of situations such as the construction industry, the manufacturing industry and even for domestic purposes.However, in the construction industry, steel is almost irreplaceable.

Examples of manufactured steel products used in the construction industry include bolts, screws, rods, sheets and plates.It is worth mentioning that even though the production is usually large scale, certain custom steel products can also be made.

What Are The Various Phases Of Steel Fabrication?

The global steel fabrications industry is booming.In fact, countless other industries actually rely on the regular operation of the fabrication industry.

Moreover, many entrepreneurs have been known to use their own fabricators in order to make themselves less dependent on other suppliers.The entire fabrication process consists of three important phases.Consider the following:

* Raw Material Cutting Phase

This is the phase where the required raw materials are cut into small pieces while simultaneously being heated.This is done so that the combination of raw materials will turn into steel.Raw materials used in this phase vary on the basis of the targeted steel products.This is a flexible phase, where raw metals as well as steel that has been recycled can be used.

* Shaping the Steel

This is the phase in which the shaping of the produced steel is done.In order to get the right shape, the newly formed mass of alloy is bent, pulled, hammered, bashed, and beaten.

The shaping is done to the pliable alloy while it is hot and soft.There are mainly two ways through which this is done.The first and better way is to use an automatic shaping machine while the other, more old fashioned method is to do it manually.

The shaping process varies greatly on the basis of the required target shapes.For example, if the final product is to be a steel rod then the hot steel will be taken and pulled from both ends.

In contrast, if sheets or plates are required then the alloy is taken and pounded to get a leveled final shape.Both of these shaping processes also involve bending the alloy.

* The Final Phase In Which the Product is Assembled and Finished

Once the first two phases are complete, the third phase kicks in where the resulting materials from the previous phases are put through a finishing process before being assembled.Depending upon the steel product, the assembly process will vary but the finishing process is usually the same.For smaller products, machines with stone pebbles are used to clean away rough edges of the steel. If the steel products are bigger the process of sand blasting will be used to clean the rough edges.




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