Sheet Metal Shop vs. Machine Shop

Those who aren’t familiar with the metal fabrication world easily confuse a sheet metal shop for a machine shop. When in fact, there is a difference between the two types of shops. Sure, all manufacturers have machines they use to fabricate things, but it would be incorrect to classify all manufacturers as machine shops simply because shops are full of machines. To keep everyone on the same page, this blog will distinguish the difference between the two types of shops.

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What Happened to Skilled Fabricators

Just recently, the New York Times came out with an article about how there’s so many job openings available in the U.S., specifically in the manufacturing world, and yet the unemployment rate is still soaring. This article touched home for us because here at VIP, we can relate! We have been in the metal fabrication business for over 56 years! Long ago, many people worked in factories and most jobs were skilled labor. Now that manufacturing has gone overseas and people are now going after the higher educated jobs, labor jobs have slowly diminished. Due to this movement of employment trends, schools and universities have also adapted. In other words, they no longer educate on things like welding, metal work, and other fabrication type skills.

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Sheet Metal Punching

Sheet metal can be used in a variety of ways whether its a sheet, formed, or has shapes cut out of it. For this blog post, we will discuss sheet metal punching. Sheet metal can have virtually any shape cut into it using a die tool and a turret punch machine. A turret punch machine has a “stamping” effect where a die tool comes down and hits the sheet metal, knocking out the shape within the metal. The portion of the metal that is punched out is called a “slug.” Not only can shapes be punched out of sheet metal, but different types of bent shapes can also be accomplished. For example, a turret punch can be used to create bridge lances, embosses (dimples), half shears, and countersinks.

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Start a Manufacturing Career

Manufacturing in the United States dwindled once companies began going overseas for cheap manufacturing. As a result many manufacturing companies have gone out of business since United States factories could not compete with the cheap price of labor in other countries. However, there has been a huge change over the last couple years that has brought manufacturing back! Since going overseas has its many disadvantages, companies are realizing that these disadvantages are outweighing the benefits and it only makes sense to stay at home. In addition, the amount of recent defense expenditures from the government has also led to more manufacturing in the United States. Continue reading