Novelty Structures is a Turkish metal fabrication manufacturer with experience in Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel and Aluminium components.
What is metal fabrication ?
Metal fabrication is the process of cutting, shaping, and assembling metal materials—such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, or alloys—into finished products or components.
It involves techniques like cutting, welding, machining, bending, and finishing, tailored to meet specific design and functional requirements.
Materials & Grades
Carbon Steel
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Stainless Steel
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Aluminium
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Operations
Cutting
Laser cutting is a thermal cutting process that uses a computer-directed high-powered laser together with an active gain mechanism (either gas or optical fiber) to concentrate the laser.
Fiber laser cutting is typically the premier choice for metal fabrication applications. Although laser cutting was developed in 1960s, industrial laser cutting become the metal fabrication norm in the late 1990s by professional metal fabricators.
There are currently two methods of laser cutting machines — CO2 laser cutters and fiber laser cutters. Both use a laser to create a beam used to cut metal, but fiber laser us optical fiber to concentrate the beam whereas the CO2 lasers use gas. Each type of laser does have its strengths and distinct use cases, CO2 is an older technology and fiber lasers are gaining market fast as the technology advances. With the speed benefits, almost half of the operating costs and three to four times greater throughput than CO2 lasers, fiber lasers offer greater opportunities in terms of financial gain. Check our article about Fiber vs Co2 Laser Cutting
Laser Cutting provides designers with the ability to let their imagination run wild without worrying about the upfront costs of custom punch and stamp tools.
Laser Cutting is a cost effective metal cutting process that can be used in rapid prototyping through to mass production of mild Steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper and brass.
Plasma Cutting is a sheet metal cutting technique which can cut through any conductive metal. This includes metals like steel, aluminium, brass, titanium and copper – either thick or thin.
Plasma cutting works by passing a hot plasma through conductive metals to cut through it. To make the plasma, an electric arc is passed through a gas such as nitrogen or oxygen. This creates a fourth state of matter called plasma. The plasma can then be forced through a small opening like a nozzle, which can then cut through conductive metal.
Plasma Cutter cut performance is quoted for mild steel. Stainless Steel and Aluminium require more power, so generally, cut performance will be less for these materials.
Although plasma cutting offers low investment and operating costs, the cutting quality is not as precise as laser cutting machines. Therefore plasma cutting is a more preferable means of cutting for thick sheet metals and high tolerance applications.
Check our article about Laser cutting vs Plasma cutting.
Shearing is a metal fabrication process that’s used to trim and remove unwanted material from sheet metal. It involves the use of a machine or tool, such as a bench shear, to slice through sheet metal with extreme precision. Shearing doesn’t require the use of heat — sheet metal is typically sheared while cold or at room temperature — nor does it produce waste in the form of chips, making it an attractive choice for manufacturers.
Shearing is a fast cutting method, performed in seconds and offers smooth edges. It is cost-effective for high-volume manufacturing applications. However, the shear length is limited to the capacity of the shear machine. Also shearing does not allow non-linear cutting.
Sheet metal punching is a cutting process in which material is removed from a piece of sheet metal by applying a shearing force. CNC Punching can be used to produce holes and special cut-outs of various dimension and shapes. The most common punched holes are frequently used geometric shapes such as circle, square, rectangle, etc.
The die, located underneath the sheet, has a cut-out in the shape of the desired feature. Punches and dies of standard shapes are typically used, but custom tooling can be made for punching complex shapes. The punch press drives the punch downward at high speed through the sheet and into the die below. There is a small clearance between the edge of the punch and the die, causing the material to quickly bend and fracture.
This process can be performed on a manual punch press, but today CNC Punch presses are most common for quick and automated production.
Bending
A press brake is a tool used in order to bend sheet metal and uses a punch and die to do this. Although press braking may seem straight forward, it can be quite difficult to remain accurate throughout the process. There are several types of press brakes which deliver different levels of force applied, such as mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic and CNC to name a few examples.
Sheet metal bending techniques are similar in that their purpose to transform sheet metal structures to the desired forms. However, their operation would be different. Factors such as material thickness, bending size, and bending radius are the main parameters to determine the optimum bending method.
Plate rolling or curving, designates the manufacture of sheet-metal parts that are rolled or curved into shapes that have a smooth radius associated with them. Although sheets of various sizes and thicknesses may be used, curving is the primary manufacturing process for metal bending large pieces of plate.
Roll bending uses either three or four rolls to feed and bend the plate to the desired shape. The positioning of the rolls determines the exact bend of the work. Different curves are obtained by controlling the distance and angle between the rolls. Moveable rolls provide the ability to control the degree of the curve.
Welding
Major challenges
Metal Fabrication Costs and Pricing
