The great thing about sheet metal is that it can be attached in numerous ways to all sorts of other materials, like plastic and wood. When you are attaching one section of sheet metal to another, there are, again, several ways of doing the job. Modern sheet metal fabrication techniques allow for all sorts of structures to be constructed and with a variety of joins. What are the common fabrication fixing techniques that fabricators use these days? 

Tab Joining

This is one of the most economic ways of joining two sections of sheet metal to one another because no other materials are used in the process. A tab join is, in effect, nothing more than a fold in the metal that connects the two sheets to each other. You can achieve a similar effect with nothing more than paper. When sheet metal tab joins are formed, however, they are rigid and highly-durable. Tab joins tend to be used for cladding and roofing sheets of metal such as those made from ductile steel, aluminium or copper.

Welding

This is an incredibly flexible way of attaching a pair of sheet metal sections to one another because a welder can choose to use a variety of welding methods. Sometimes, a spot weld is all that is needed for a certain type of fabrication. Where a watertight or even an airtight seal is needed, then a more extensive weld can be conducted along the seam of the two sheets of metal. Welding is also good for fixing sheet metal to tubular metal.

Clinch Joining

A cold form process, clinch joining is a preferred method for fabricators to connect a thicker section of sheet metal to a thinner one. When the two sections of metal are set out so that one section overlaps the next, a heavy-duty clinching die is forced into the two layers to reshape them. Rather like a button going through a button hole, this fixes the two sections of sheet metal to one another permanently.

Riveting

Among the oldest techniques used for connecting different layers of sheet metal together, riveting is still widely used by fabrication firms. A rivet is punched into two overlapping sections of metal rather like a clinch joint. However, rather than merely reforming the metal, the rivet penetrates both sections like a nail running into two sections of wood. Various kinds of rivets are available for different sorts of jobs and looks. Typical examples include flush rivets, semi-tubular rivets and drive rivets.

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