V and F Sheet Metal Co Ltd

If you are looking to purchase sheet metal angle brackets manufactured to your own designs please contact V and F Sheet Metal.  We have all the facilities you need to laser cut or CNC punch your brackets and CNC fold them no matter how complex they might be.  Using a wide range of ferrous and non-ferrous sheet metal materials we can help you with your bracket designs and produce cost options that suit your projects needs.

Contact us on 001489 577786 or e-mail your drawings to sales@vandf.co.uk and our UK based engineering team will be happy to help you.

When you are looking for CNC punched sheet metal work you need someone with the ability to deal with all your needs.  From the thinnest tin plated screen cans or anodised lighting reflector materials right up to 6mm thick aluminium support plates and stainless steel brackets.  Supported by Radan sheet metal CAD/CAM software with 3D modelling V and F Sheet Metal are ready to help you develop your sheet metal ideas and turn them into manufactured metal work.  In addition to 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses we also have a Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser which we can use across the full range of ferrous and non-ferrous metals including copper and brass sheet.  This capacity enables us to be very flexible when it comes to rush jobs or sheet metal work in small batches with non standard cut-outs. 

Call us on 01489 577786 or e-mail us at sales@vandf.co.uk and we will be happy to help you.

Batch Manufacture of Sheet Metal Products

With a wide range of modern sheet metal manufacturing equipment V and F Sheet Metal can offer you batch manufacturing from simple one offs, new design prototypes and special small volume projects to repeating batches and larger call offs. Using CNC laser cutting with a Trumpf 3030 fibre 3KW laser and 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses we can process most sheet metal products in ferrous and non-ferrous sheet from just a couple of parts from an off cut of sheet to high volumes using many tons of material. Along with 6 CNC press brakes from 600mm right up to 3000mm long we can cope with most sheet metal work you can throw at us. All programming is carried out with the latest Radan sheet metal software allowing design options to be investigated before cutting any sheet, saving you time and money once in production.

Whether you want a small batch of 25 parts called off from a larger volume or a 5000 batch made in one go, give us a call and we will be happy to help you with your sheet metal requirements.

Sheet Metal Work Manufacturing 2016

I thought I would start 2016 with a quick round up of the sheet metal work projects that are going through the manufacturing workshop. We have components be manufactured in galvanised mild steel, zintec coated mild steel and plain uncoated mild steel in these images. With a range of sizes, thicknesses, batch volumes and manufacturing methods. The purpose of this blog post is to help highlight the wide range of sheet metal work manufacturing that we can take on for our customers here in the UK and across Europe.

Light fitting galvanised mild steel gear plates

These light fitting electronic equipment gear trays have been manufactured from 0.7mm thick galvanised mild steel sheet. The initial flat blank was produced on our Trumpf CNC punch presses to a CNC program laid out in our Radan software. All the holes and outer profile was CNC punched using standard CNC tooling we already had so there was no tooling cost to the customer. The edges were simply de-burred using a vertical de-burring belt machine within the punching cycle time and then the bends were added on one of our CNC press brakes. This was a large batch of work with several thousand gear trays manufactured on this occasion.

Sheet metal plates made from pre-cut zintec blanks

Sometimes when the volumes are quite high and the format of the sheet metal component that we are manufacturing is simply a square or a rectangle we can remove the need to either laser cut or CNC punch the parts by buying in a pre-cut blank. These blanks are supplied by the material stockist direct from the master material coil as with these 0.7mm thick zintec coated mild steel sections. Again there were several thousand needed on this order and we have a range of tooling die sets that simply pierce out the end profiles and holes. Not only does this speed up the manufacturing of these parts but it frees up laser cutting and CNC punching capacity for more complex parts to be manufactured in our factory. The final operation on these components is to have a curved form pressed into each part along their length on one of our CNC press brakes using a special form tool and then pop riveted to a pre-formed end cap to make up an assembly. It’s just another way of manufacturing sheet metal work and shows the flexibility of manufacturing in the UK.

Mild steel wall mounting brackets

Theses wall mounting brackets for fan heaters have been manufactured from 2mm thick CR4 mild steel and will be completed by powder coating RAL9010 white. They have been manufactured by laser cutting from 2M x 1M sheets on our Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser using nitrogen form a clean cut which will take a powder coated finish without any difficultly from oxidised edges. The mounting brackets have been pressed up into the shape you can see here with a custom press tool that forms all 6 bends in one go. You can see the classic draw marks along the sides of the mounting brackets where the mild steel has scuffed against the die as it was pressed into the tool on our HMS 55 ton power press. When the are reasonable volumes in each batch and a customer can be confident that they will not be changing their design press tooling can be a useful sheet metal work manufacturing method. If a component will be redesigned regularly or the volumes are smaller then the use of CNC press brakes come into their own with only a quick program change being needed to produce a longer bend of a different angle. As with all these manufacturing process methods you “pays your money and takes your choice”.

CNC punched motor support discs

These simple motor support discs have been manufactured from 2mm zintec coated mild steel sheet metal. The 3 holes and the outer profile were all CNC punched with existing standard tooling we had on the shelf so again there was no tooling cost for our customer. Each part was CNC punched in under 2 seconds with the last punching operation being the blanking of the outer diameter straight through the die and into a collecting bin. The whole batch of 300 motor support discs were then simply dry barrel de-burred to remove any sharpness on the edges from punching and the components were finished ready for shipping. These parts are a great example of some of the simpler things we manufacture here at V and F Sheet Metal.

Sheet metal fixing plates

In much the same way that the motor mounting discs above were manufactured by CNC punching and dry barrel de-burring these fixing plates were manufactured by CNC punching with standard tooling. Again, using our Radan sheet metal programming software to create the blank design and select the correct tooling to suit the customer’s design we minimise the number of CNC punch hits and add tags where needed to enable us to hold each part in the sheet of zintec so the operator can remove them carefully ready for de-burring. The batch was several hundred and is a repeat part that we manufacture several times a year.

Sheet metal formed sections

These sheet metal formed sections have been manufactured for a customer of ours who assemble fan units for air conditioning systems. These fan support sections have been CNC punched from 0.9mm Zintec coated mild steel, edge de-burred and had the 4 bends formed in one operation with some simple form tooling we made in house to keep the manufactured part cost to a minimum.

So in conclusion were are only a few days into 2016 and already a wide range of manufacturing projects have been finished. Perhaps you have a sheet metal component or assembly you want manufacturing in the UK, please give us a call on 01489 577786 or send us your drawings to sales@vandf.co.uk and we will be happy to take a look and see how we can help you.

Mild steel chassis with bushes and studs

Great example of sheet metal work with pressed in bushes, studs and stand-offs. All parts are mild steel and zinc plated and will be powder coated on the final finished sheet metal components. These chassis sections are typical of the many designs we manufacture using a range of bushes, studs and stand-offs to make our customers lives a lot easier when it comes to assembling their products. The inserts are very robust and can cope with being degreased and the over temperatures involved with powder coating.

Sheet metal work with hank bushes

A range of Hank bushes inserted in a zintec chassis panel using our Haeger bush inserter machine. Bushes range form M2.5 to M12 in mild steel zinc plated and stainless steel and for a wide range of material sheet thicknesses. As shown here they can be inserted on both sides of the sheet and very close to each other if requited making them a versatile alternative to tapping threads or using separate nuts in assembly. We have inserted millions of hank bushes over the years and still find them to be the best most robust solution to having a captive thread in a sheet metal work.

Mild steel panels with flush head studs

We use flush head studs in a range of sizes, lengths and materials in hundreds of different sheet metal panels. The sheet metal work shown here is typical of the front panels we would make for people with flush head studs. We simple laser cut or CNC punch a hole in the sheet wherever the stud is needed and press the studs in place. If the studs head has to be completely invisible on the front face the a weld stud is used but if a small witness is not important then the pressed in studs are the best solution being cheap to buy, quick to insert and very accurately positioned as they have the hole predefined +/- 0.1mm by laser cutting or CNC punching.

If you have a sheet metal work project that needs bushes, stand offs or studs please give us a call and we will be happy to help. There are also a whole range of more specialist inserts that we can press into to speed up your assembly times and we are happy to discuss your needs and advise where needed.

A nice collection of similar parts all for one prototype sheet metal project showing the range of parts that have been laser cut and folded up from the same sheet of aluminium. The parts are all sat of the work bed of one of our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes with some of the V bend top and bottom tooling in the back ground. If the batch sizes were to become larger we would look to move the parts with many holes onto one of our CNC punch presses as they are much quicker at punching round holes than the laser cutter but the odd shaped parts would be better on the laser cutter with no special tooling required. At V and F Sheet Metal we can move jobs around to get the best possible price to match the correct manufacturing methods when it comes to sheet metal work.

These parts are typical of the small batch and small component sized parts that we manufacture for many companies in the UK and Europe. If you would like to know more or have an aluminium sheet metal project that you need manufacturing please just call us on 01489 577786 or e-mail sales@vandf.co.uk and we will be happy to help you.

Laser cutting 1.2mm Zintec with a Trumpf 3030 fibre laser

Classic example of a thin sheet metal component being laser cut on our Trumpf 3030 fibre laser cutter from a 2M x 1M full sheet. The laser cutter is using compressed air from a dedicated supply as the assist gas to blow away the molten metal melted by the 3KW laser beam. With this material and gauge you can see just how fast the laser machine can cut and yet still produce a really clean edge that requires no edge de-burring as a secondary operation.

Here’s the finished sheet of laser cut parts (the nest) with one removed to see how clean the cut is. The laser beam width being less that 0.5mm wide enables the components to be cut close together and features cut with virtually no material waste.

Looking to have some sheet metal work laser cut then please give us a call on 01489 577786 or send over your drawings to sales@vandf.co.uk

From 0.3mm tin plated mild steel to 10mm stainless steel thick and from just a few mm across to 3M long V and F Sheet Metal can fold sheet metal sections in their factory in Fareham, Hampshire, UK. With 6 CNC press brakes ranging from 600mm Guifils and 1000mm Trumpf 7036 machines right up to 3000mm Safan e-Brake (new in 2015) V and F can cover all your sheet metal folded section needs.

For more information on sheet metal work and how it’s made take a look at our in depth web page.

We also have a range of fly presses with specialist form tooling for that unusual shaped bracket, give us a go and we are sure we will be able to help you.