Custom high-precision sheet metal prototypes and parts, as fast as 5 days.
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Home Office: 116 Cardigan Road, Office M2.
Headingley, Leeds UK, LS6 3BJ
Company Number: 12704810
VAT Number: GB393458263
Factory: Building A, Hongfa Industrial District
Houda Road, Daling Shan, Dongguan,
Guangdong, China
Our rapid sheet metal prototyping and production services include a variety of tooled and manual manufacturing techniques and processes enabling us to realise some highly complex parts without expensive and time-consuming production tooling. We can help you quickly and accurately make your enclosures, brackets, assemblies, weldments, cabinets, housings and other sheet metal parts and prototypes.
| Applicable Materials | Colour | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bead Blasting | All metals | Uniform matte of raw material colour | Bead blasting is used mainly for visual purposes and comes in several different grits which indicate the size of the bombarding pellets. |
| Powder Coating | All metals | Black, white | Powder coating is typically used because it has a longer lasting, tougher finish than painting. |
| Anodizing | All metals | Clear, black, grey, red, blue, gold | Anodising is used to increase surface hardness, wear resistance and durability of metals such as Aluminium. |
The table below summarises the standard tolerances used at HLH for sheet metal parts.
| Feature | Tolerance |
| Forming or bending | ±0.508mm (0.020″) |
| Bend to edge | ±0.254mm (0.010″) |
| Bend to hole | ±0.381mm (0.015″) |
Send us your 3D CAD and include any quantity, material or surface finish requirements, and our team will get back with a quote within 24 hours. Our comprehensive quote will include your sheet metal part price, shipping cost, lead times, and any remarks raised by our engineers.
We understand the needs of engineers and industrial designers. With full in-house capabilities – bending, laser cutting, welding, as well as CNC folding, tapping, countersinking, counterboring and other processes – we offer unrivalled turnaround on one-off metal prototypes.
We have the experience to produce both simple and complex sheet metal parts for the automotive, aerospace, electronics and many more industries. With no Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ), we provide the flexibility and scalable capacity that your project requires.
Sheet metal can be quickly cut into 2D profile shapes and formed out of a variety of high-strength materials, making it perfect for rapid tooling. Its per-unit pricing lowers significantly in production volumes. Combined with end-use materials and high throughput, sheet metal fabrication is a well-known production method.
Sheet Metal Fabrication is Used For
Rapid prototypes, low volume production, medical and communications products, housings and enclosures, everything from cars and space rockets and planes to air conditioners and soda cans.
Advantages of Sheet Metal Prototyping
Sheet metal is a common form of raw metal stock, usually 0.006 and 0.25 inches thick. Fabrication is a collection of processes used to shape raw metal stock into a usable product. Sheet metal prototyping includes many machining processes meant to assemble, cut, or form a sheet metal workpiece. After fabrication, a product often needs to undergo finishing processes. Read the full guide here.
There are 3 common stages in the sheet metal fabrication process, all of which can be completed with various types of fabrication tools. The stages are:
Sheet metal prototyping and production solutions are a cost efficient and productive way to make metal parts.
Typically, sheet metal fabrication services can cost anywhere from a hundred dollars up to ten thousands of dollars. The price depends on the raw material cost, part complexity, post processing work involved and cost of labor.
Many industries are heavily reliant on sheet metal rapid prototyping solutions, including:
Any metal thinner than 6mm is considered sheet metal. Any metal thicker than 6mm is considered a metal plate.
