Sheet Metal Assemblies

Free Design Review for Fabricated Assemblies

Our design review consists of a 30-minute virtual meeting with one of our sheet metal applications engineers. It’s a perfect opportunity to discuss any questions you may have about your project. Common discussion questions include:

Materials

Choose from readily available materials which can be easily constructed into a final assembly. Industry standard material thicknesses are used for all material types. Common materials found in fabricated assemblies are:

• Aluminum 5052-H32
• Low carbon steel CR 1008
• Stainless steel 304/304L
• Stainless steel 316/316L

Each of these materials provides excellent formability and weldability characteristics, as well as superior corrosion resistance in harsh environments.

Additional materials are available, such as pre-plated steels (galvanized or galvannealed). However, the pre-treated coating makes these materials candidates for rivet-based assembly construction.

Our material comparison tool offers more information on sheet metal types and thickness ranges.

Assembly Construction Guidelines

Customizing your assembly design can take many forms. Consider the following for your next sheet metal project.

Maximum assembly size (when fully constructed): 47 in. x 39 in. x 36 in. (1194mm x 991mm x 914mm)

Available assembly methods:

• Welding (seam, tack, stitch weld techniques)
• Riveting (pop and solid rivets)
• Hardware insertion

Formed features:

• Linear bending (via press brake) with tooling options between .010 in. and 1 in. (0.254mm and 25.4mm).
• Large radius bending for additional functional or aesthetic requirements using bump forming or roll-forming techniques.
• Punch-formed features such as louvers, ribs, dimples.

Machined Features:

Post-processing CNC machining can offer additional features typically found on more complex geometries. These design elements are hard to achieve with laser cutting, punching, or press brake forming alone. Possible features include:

• Pockets
• Holes, cutouts, or features at risk of deformation during forming
• Flange length reduction

Tolerances:

• Typical sheet metal tolerances apply to assemblies. Review our design guidelines for more details.

Hardware Insertion Guidelines

An extensive stocked library of fasteners is available from brands such as PEM and Southco.

File Formatting:

• Recommended: Include any hardware in your 3D CAD model as separate solid bodies from the main sheet metal body. Use industry standard hardware part numbers when possible (e.g. CLS-M6-1)

• Self-clinching nuts
• Self-clinching standoffs
• Flush-head studs
• Miniature self-clinching nuts
• Self-clinching flush nuts
• Flush-head pins
• Self-clinching blind fasteners
• Thin sheet non-flush studs
• Self-clinching lock nuts
• Self-clinching micro pins
• Panel fasteners

Lead Time: Adding hardware to your part design does not add lead time.

Design Guidelines:

• For inserts to grip the sheet metal correctly, the material of the hardware insert must have a hardness equal to or greater than the material into which it is inserted. Further details on hardware and material compatibility can be found in our Design for Manufacturability Toolkit.

• Our design tip on effective hardware integration covers hardware use cases and part placement considerations.

Welding Guidelines

Welding is available to join or fuse your metal components into their assembled form. Our most common welding capabilities include gas metal arc welding (MIG) and gas tungsten arc welding (TIG).

Welding Design Guidelines:

• To avoid material warping or “oil canning,” the minimum material thickness for welded assemblies is 0.042 in. (1.07mm).
• Maximum material thickness for welded assemblies is 0.250 in. (6.35mm).
• Always specify welding location requirements on your 2D drawing.
• If possible, avoid specifying a welding method, unless required for functionality.
• Material types must be consistent across parts when welding multiple geometries.

Riveting is an option to consider if you are looking for additional flexibility when joining your metal components. Riveting is a technique in which components are joined using a type of hardware called a rivet. For more information, review our blog post on the different advantages of welding or riveting your next project.

Lead Time: Welding adds 1 business day.