A custom metal fabrication shop can offer much in the way of fulfilling customer needs and requirements. A well-established metal fabrication company offers the trust and expertise that will positively affect your bottom line. Even with a limited budget, you don’t have to sacrifice quality in search of cost-effective solutions. An experienced custom metal fabrication shop can realize cost savings for their customers. From increased efficiency to selecting the appropriate materials, here are five meaningful ways to save money on your next custom metal fabrication project:
All-In-One Efficiency
From concept to completion, custom metal fabrication projects are composed of a number of detailed, intricate, processes and stages. A precision metal fabricator offering a one-stop shop solution from prototype to production to assembly and custom packing can reduce the extra expenditures that accompany outsourcing processes. To save time and money, select a company that can complete as many, if not all, of the processes as possible. All-in-one efficiency streamlines planning and production, improves processes, ensures communication with one team that can avoid costly errors and delays. Having the capabilities to provide all aspects of the manufacturing process, provides shorter lead times, competitive pricing, and overall value that meets and exceeds expectations.
Quality Fabrication Techniques
Unlike other manufacturing processes, fabrication processes are composed of a number of techniques to produce quality components and parts used for end products or for further assembly. Raw material must be cut, shaped, joined, or molded into final products using a combination of fabrication techniques. Common types of fabrication range from shearing, stamping, bending, and laser cutting to punching, forming, and welding. The number of fabrication techniques used in a production process will depend on the material, design, and desired end product. One technique should not be substituted for another. Choosing the appropriate fabrication techniques for metal can also maximize the material used and minimize scrap. Value and cost savings are realized when fabrication shops have the right tooling and state-of-the-art equipment on hand to ensure the necessary fabrication techniques are employed to produce products of the highest quality.
Design Optimization
In many ways, design optimization is a collaboration between the customer and the fabricator intended to produce the desired product on time, of the highest quality, at the projected cost. It is very much a creative process, too. Working with an experienced, well-established fabricator—one that has likely worked on similar projects as yours—is a valuable resource and presents an opportunity that may improve upon your design as well as save money. Custom fabrication shops can offer valuable insight, input, ideas, and recommendations on everything facet of design from selecting the optimal material to meet application requirements to the necessary fabrication techniques required for production. Design optimization is a creative endeavor that, in total, provides a more efficient and cost-effective process that will save you money in the long run.
Selecting the Correct Material
Whether you are using steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper or brass, the correct material is the appropriate material, one that has the mechanical properties necessary to meet the application requirements for your product. That said, material costs are generally the greater part of any project budget. To save on costs, consider an appropriate material with the properties required for the application to perform as designed. For example, both aluminum and stainless steel have corrosion-resistant properties, but your material costs for one over the other can vary by volume and weight. On paper, based on weight, aluminum is more costly than stainless steel. By volume, aluminum is more cost-effective because you get more product due to its lighter weight. Selecting an appropriate material with the optimal material thickness than first calculated can also be cost-effective. When laser cutting, thinner materials are cut at different rates, which can reduce the total costs of laser cutting.
Value-Added Services
Companies that offer additional services beyond those core manufacturing and fabrication services that help their clients meet their needs more efficiently are considered value-added. Perhaps the most important value-added service offered by fabricators is custom packing and crating. At the completion of a fabrication project, custom export crate design ensures the safe transport of high-quality products to their destination. To save on shipping costs, your fabricator can manage your shipping logistics—overseeing the preparation, planning, organization, execution, and control of the transportation to help reduce costs.
For more information about our custom metal fabrication shop capabilities for your next project, please contact us at Quest-Tech Precision today!
