INTRODUCTION

Fabrication, when used as an industrial term, applies to the building of machines, structures and
other equipment, by cutting, shaping and assembling components made from raw materials.
Small businesses that specialize in metal are called fab shop.
Fabrication comprises or overlaps with various metalworking specialties:

Fabrication shops and machine shops have overlapping capabilities, but fabrication shops
generally concentrate on the metal preparation aspects (such as sawing tubing to length or
bending sheet metal or plate), welding, and assembly, whereas machine shops are more
concerned with the machining of parts on machine tools. Firms that encompass both are
also common.

Blacksmithing has always involved fabrication, although it was not always called by that
name.

The products produced by welders, which are often referred to as weldments, are an
example of fabrication.

Boilermakers originally specialized in boilers, leading to their trade's name, but the term
as used today has a broader meaning.

Similarly, millwrights originally specialized in setting up grain mills and saw mills, but
today they may be called upon for a broad range of fabrication work.

Ironworkers, also known as steel erectors, also engage in fabrication. Often the
fabrications for structural work begin as prefabricated segments in a fab shop, then are
moved to the site by truck, rail, or barge, and finally are installed by erectors.

Metal fabrication

Metal fabrication is a value added process that involves the construction of machines and
structures from various raw materials. A fab shop will bid on a job, usually based on the
engineering drawings, and if awarded the contract will build the product.

Fabrication shops are employed by contractors, OEM's and VAR's. Typical projects
include; loose parts, structural frames for buildings and heavy equipment, and hand
railings and stairs for buildings.

Engineering

The fabricator may employ or contract out steel detailers to prepare shop drawings, if not
provided by the customer, which the fabricating shop will use for manufacturing.
Manufacturing engineers will program CNC machines as needed.

CHAPTER -2

INDUSTRY PROFILE
INDUSTRIAL PROFILE
Metalworking is the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies, or
large scale structures. The term covers a wide range of work from large ships and bridges to
precise engine parts and delicate jewellery. It therefore includes a correspondingly wide range of
skills, processes, and tools.
Metalworking is a science, art, hobby, industry and trade. Its historical roots span cultures,
civilizations, and millennia. Metalworking has evolved from the discovery of smelting various
ores, producing malleable and ductile metal useful for tools and adornments. Modern
metalworking processes, though diverse and specialized, can be categorized as forming, cutting
or joining processes. Today's machine shop includes a number of machine tools capable of
creating a precise, useful work piece.

Prehistory
Metalworking predates history. No one knows with any certainty where or when metalworking
began. The earliest technologies were impermanent to say the least and were unlikely to leave
any evidence for long. The advance that brought metal into focus was the connection of fire and
metals. Who accomplished this is as unknown as the when and where, but the Egyptians are
thought to have been one of the first civilizations to work gold.
Not all metal required fire to obtain it or work it. Isaac Asimov speculated that gold was the "first
metal. His reasoning is that gold by its chemistry is found in nature as nuggets of pure gold. In

other words, gold, as rare as it is, is always found in nature as the metal that it is. There are a few
other metals that sometimes occur natively, and as a result of meteors. Almost all other metals
are found in ores, a mineral bearing rock, that requires heat or some other process to liberate the
metal. Another feature of gold is that it is workable as it is found, meaning that no technology
beyond eyes to find a nugget and a hammer and an anvil to work the metal is needed. Stone
hammer and stone anvil will suffice for technology. This is the result of gold's properties of
malleability and ductility. The earliest tools were stone, bone, wood, and sinew. They sufficed to
work gold.
At some unknown point the connection between heat and the liberation of metals from rock
became clear, rocks rich in copper, tin, and lead came into demand. These ores were mined
wherever they were recognized. Remnants of such ancient mines have been found all over what
is today the Middle East. Metalworking was being carried out by the South Asian inhabitants of
Mehrgarh between 70003300 BCE. The end of the beginning of metalworking occurs sometime
around 6000 BCE when copper smelting became common in the Middle East.
History
By the historical periods of the Pharaohs in Egypt, the Vedic Kings in India, the Tribes of Israel,
and the Mayan Civilization in North America, among other ancient populations, precious metals
began to have value attached to them. In some cases rules for ownership, distribution, and trade
were created, enforced, and agreed upon by the respective peoples. By the above periods
metalworkers were very skilled at creating objects of adornment, religious artifacts, and trade
instruments of precious metals (non-ferrous), as well as weaponry usually of ferrous metals
and/or alloys. These skills were finely honed and well executed. The techniques were practiced
by artisans, blacksmiths, atharvavedic practitioners, alchemists, and other categories of
metalworkers around the globe. For example, the ancient technique of granulation is found
around the world in numerous ancient cultures before the historic record shows people traveled
seas or overland to far regions of the earth to share this process that still being used by metal
smiths today.

As time progressed metal objects became more common, and ever more complex. The need to
further acquire and work metals grew in importance. Skills related to extracting metal ores from
the earth began to evolve, and metal smiths became more knowledgeable. Meta lsmiths became
important members of society. Fates and economies of entire civilizations were greatly affected
by the availability of metals and metal smiths. The metalworker depends on the extraction of
precious metals to make jewellery, build more efficient electronics, and for industrial and
technological applications from construction to shipping containers to rail, and air transport.
Without metals, goods and services would cease to move around the globe on the scale we know
today.
More individuals than ever before are learning metalworking as a creative outlet in the forms of
jewellery making, hobby restoration of aircraft and cars, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, tinkering,
and in other art and craft pursuits. Trade schools continue to teach welding in all of its forms, and
there is a proliferation of schools of Lapidary and Jewelers arts and sciences at this- the
beginning of the 21st Century AD.