When you’re fabricating metal, you want to make sure that you choose the right metal. So, we are going to look at two factors to consider when choosing metal for metal fabrication.
One of the things that you want to remember is that metals will corrode as time goes by. A very common kind of corrosion is rust, and this happens when a metal that contains iron gets exposed to water and oxygen. However, that is only one type of corrosion. Below are three types of corrosion to consider.
- Crevice corrosion – Water and oxygen can become trapped beneath bolt heads or washers and lead to corrosion at the connected joints.
- Galvanic corrosion – Sometimes a metal will react with another. This type of corrosion will happen when the metals are exchanging ions.
- Uniform corrosion – Even, large corrosion areas are called uniform corrosion. It happens on the surface of metal.
These are the three types of corrosion to consider when it comes to metal fabrication. Some types of metals that are very resistant to corrosion are aluminum, titanium, and stainless-steel alloys.
Along with corrosion resistance, you also want to consider the hardness of a metal. Like corrosion resistance, there are three types of hardness.
- Scratch hardness – This is based on how easily the metal’s surface is scratched.
- Rebound hardness – This is based on the metal absorbing impact.
- Indentation Hardness – This will test how the metal will withstand continuous force.
These are just two of the things that you want to consider in metal fabrication. As you can see, being a metal fabricator takes a lot of skill, knowledge, and experience in order to master the craft and produce great results.
