Sheet Metal Forming
Sheet metal forming is the process of stretching, compressing, and shaping metal sheet. In general, compressing metal materials between two rollers makes sheet metal. Once compressed, it can be bent, drawn, cut, punched, or stretched. These processes are responsible for giving sheet metal a different shape, surface, or size.
Sheet metal can be formed in many different ways. Stretching, for instance, is the process by which sheet metal is clamped around the edges and stretched to make various products, including car doors. In contrast, drawing and deep drawing are stamping processes that makes flat sheet metal into various three dimensional forms. Cutting changes the size of the sheet and can also be used to cut the metal into shapes, whereas punches perforate the sheet and cut specific shapes out of the metal.
Sheet metal can also be simply bent or curved. Bending involves straining sheet metal by moving it about a linear axis on a neutral plane. Formed sheet metal is widely used in numerous industrial applications.