If you are gearing up to launch a processing and manufacturing business, there are a couple of major decisions that you need to make. For starters, you need to determine what your main manufacturing materials will be, and secondly, you will need to determine if you will be fabricating this supply in-house or if you will outsource these services. In terms of materials, steel remains a popular material for a myriad of manufacturing plants since it offers characteristics such as robustness, workability, lightweight and more.

However, while fabricating your products in-house may seem like the most cost-efficient solution, it is not necessarily economical, especially when you are first starting. Before you make this decision, consider the following stages that you can expect when you hire steel fabrication services so you can establish if they will be right for your new business.

Designing the prototype

Admittedly, you can design your product line's prototypes by hand, but this is not the best solution for several reasons. For instance, translating handwritten sketches into a three-dimensional model can prove time-consuming, more so if you are not clear with the specifications. Moreover, humans are known to make mistakes, and these mistakes will appear on your prototype, which means you will have to start from scratch.

These issues do not have to be a problem when you outsource work to steel fabrication services. A company equipped with designers as well as cutting-edge technology in the form of CAD software will provide you with accurate, three-dimensional renders that not only make sure that your prototype is error-free but also that bringing it to life is not a laborious and cost-intensive process.

Cutting and forming the steel

Once you are happy with the designed prototype, your steel fabrication providers can embark on cutting and forming raw steel supplies to create hundreds or even thousands of the parts required for your preferred number of final products. The cutting process needs to be exact, or else you could end up losing a considerable amount of raw materials, which will inflate your production costs. Hence, if you do not have the expertise or the latest technology that will perform these duties with minimal risk of error, it is best to leave it to professional steel fabricators.

The fabricators will be armed with an assortment of cutting equipment such as waterjets, laser cutters and so on to ensure the best result. After cutting is complete, the resulting steel pieces are then formed depending on what technique works best for your specific project. From the use of extrusion to traditional bending and folding, the experts will know what method will be most ideal.

If you are happy with the cut and formed products, the steel fabricators can follow up with assembling the products, and the steel fabrication process is concluded by finishing the products' surfaces via, for example, electroplating or powder coating.