- info@alafnanmetals.com
- +971 58 596 5811
Metal fabrication is an often overlooked but incredibly valuable contemporary industry practice. When facing seemingly impossible design challenges, metal fabrication may uncover a sustainable manufacturing solution that aligns with stringent specifications – by transforming raw metal into precision parts solving the posed challenge anywhere in the world. From engineered components to withstand challenging environments, to design performances and tests where lightweight but demanding endure exactingly, obviously no manufacturing process can contribute to engineered creativity like professional metal fabrication. Metal fabrication is not only highly functional and versatile, it can support new levels of creative engineering functional engagement. At Al Afnan Metals, we have supported on today’s advanced metal fabrication techniques highly challenging specifications to working reality, alleviating time and labor of challenging overcoming you may have thought impossible.
Metal Fabrication is a mix of art, science, and engineering transforming raw materials into functional pieces through a skilled series of precision process steps. Metal fabrication, as a profession, can combine all of those, and has come to fruition in this relatively recent profession – as opposed to simple metalworking processes where a piece is just developed. Today’s fabrication processes typically use engineered and advanced technology and skilled craftsman to solve highly challenging manufacturing processes.
Processes typical to any metal fabrication include:
What uniquely defines professional metal fabrication are critical thinking, engineering, and troubleshooting approaches to providing engineered specification parts. The critical and appropriate thinking and engineered troubleshooting aspects, is the initial challenge for amenities needing to understand this a key part of engaging with professional metal fabricators to solve parts. Rather than simply attempt to engineer and produce a sample or production part, it is highly advantageous to engage skilled metal fabricators to understand or theorize a compatibility method downs stream, the function of each part when interacting with continuing parts, material, weight, and burden, and then provide an engineered and process of challenges spec, from said specification, to end engineer designers detail conception and fabricated reality, testing, and compatibility with ancillary parts. Metal fabricators think about how your component is going to function in the “real world” rather than only develop part samples prior to testing at fabrication meeting. Because problem could arise, the skilled metal fabricator will think about the challenge specification and then concoct engineered solutions. Each learning and post testing will put you even farther working on a suggested process, also enhanced specification, normally only known after government, or formal testing. Achieving such through a process will vastly enhance the dream of achieving a design component made an engineered specification reality.
Metal fabrication acts as the answer to situations where traditional manufacturing will not work:
When oil and gas companies need equipment to handle chemicals corrosive to most metals, under extreme pressures and in heat that reaches higher than 1000°F, custom metal fabrication provides a solution with specialized alloys and precision design that cannot be achieved with traditional equipment.
Aeronautics manufacturers continue to condense the weight of aircraft while maintaining structural integrity. Advanced fabrication technologies produce honeycomb structures and variable thickness components to help reduce weight without sacrificing strength—a practical example of metal fabrication achieving impossible demands.
When equipment on a manufacturing line needs modifications to improve efficiency, the prototyping, quick production, and small-batch capabilities of metal fabricators shorten the design to production lifecycle to implement design solutions on a speedy timeline. This allows companies to implement design testing and modifications while making improvements potentially weeks sooner than if they relied on traditional manufacturing.
In tight packing configurations of machinery, or limited-footprint facilities, stock, mass-produced, or off-the-shelf products may not have capacity to fit. Metal fabrication can create equipment that perfectly meets configuration requirements, even when they appear impossible to lay out in the space provided.
Industries with strict regulatory manufacturing requirements routinely find that equipment cannot comply with compliance standards. Metal fabricators routinely provide equipment that is designed and fabricated to meet or exceed regulatory requirements, such as food-grade stainless steel processing equipment to explosion-proof electrical enclosures.
Using professional metal fabrication services results in several important advantages for businesses:
When you work with any organization for any services, you get either catalog parts or specifications. The difference with metal fabrication professionals is that you get a partner dedicated to solving problems and challenges, in addition to the traditional buying relationship. Metal fabricators can review your problems and suggest improvements. They can engineer new solutions to problems that you may not have thought were even possible. This is the power of working with true experts.
Custom metal fabrication allows you to optimize every aspect of each component characteristic; From materials to dimensions, every component will be optimized for the best performance under your unique conditions for operation.
Intellectual property is potentially made and enhanced depending on your competitive advantage is based on proprietary equipment or proprietary components. Custom metal fabrication helps protect your intellectual property in several ways: Custom metal fabrication keeps your designs secret (two copies prevent a plan from leaving the facility under normal risks), your custom fabricated items are not standard off-the-shelf items, and as such, are not easily reproduced or mimicked by competitors.
When organizations rely on standardized parts, they run a significant risk when supply chains fail. Having a custom metal fabrication partner will provide continuity amid any supply chain disruptions, as a skilled fabricator can often engineer an alternative, similar quality part using different local materials. Recycling materials is also a possible solution.
Many of the time in our industry the first thing we often think about is just the cost of a standard manufactured version of a part versus a custom fabricated part. Although the cost of a similar part may be less expensive; however, that cost only incorporates the first costs for building a custom part. Often, rigid manufactured parts can lead to costlier adaptations. In contrast, using professional metal fabrication translates to your part’s capability being optimized for your application, meaning unnecessary features can be omitted or more critical features can be improved all while achieving better input cost implementation.
Business needs change and depending on who you’re working with, whether a custom fabricating or progressive manufacturer, future state modifications from an existing infrastructure can save your business time and money when adapting versus changing a current process to exchange infrastructures in a business sense. Adaptations can extend the useful life of an existing infrastructure as well, maximizing your ROI.
To easily distinguish what a great metal fabrication partner versus average parts supplier, comes down to how you know they will solve your problem. The reputation that Al Afnan Metals has built is based on a few core differentiators:
Rather than just being fabricators that produce anything drawn, Al Afnan Metals starts each metal fabrication project off with engineering analysis, collaborating with our clients to surface potential issues before production starts. A suggested change to the design can improve functionality, reduce cost, and improve durability for all metal fabrication projects.
Al Afnan Metals has extensive knowledge across a variety of metals and alloys, which allows our team to recommend the best materials for any challenge in metal fabrication. Any special characteristics you need while using metal, whether it be heat resistance or wear resistance, corrosion protection, or electrically specific properties, our team will know which metal to use for your project.
Our organization has solved metal fabrications challenges in industries ranging from energy, food processing, and defense. Often insights gleaned from one industry engage our thinking and lead to a different solution in another.
Al Afnan’s advanced metal fabrication process entails simulation and testing prior to cutting the first piece of metal. The proactive use of simulation and testing to drive metal fabrication leads to identifying and eliminating potential failure points and going through optimization before any production takes place.
Based on the capabilities of Al Afnan Metals, we can produce a prototype or engage in high volume production. Al Afnan’s Metal Fabrication maintains consistent quality at the level of volume the project requires, from first article to full production.
Al Afnan Metals coordinates the entire metal fabrication experience from conception, design, production, quality verification, delivery, while also providing complete responsibility and communication throughout each phase.
A food manufacturer found their equipment in a corrosive, acidic processing environment was failing far earlier than expected. Standard stainless-steel components were breaking down prematurely, causing a costly interruption in the manufacturing process.
Solution: Al Afnan Metals created a custom metal fabrication solution with the help of specialty Duplex stainless alloys that exhibit superior resistance to corrosion. All of the engineered replacement components were fabricated with eliminated crevices where the corrosion process typically begins, with a gradual transition away from problematic areas that also resolved the propensity for material retention build-up. The life of the equipment was extended by over three times, significantly reducing expected replacement costs.
A logistic company needed to maximize payload capacity while still adhering to the weight restrictions imposed on public roadways.
Solution: Utilizing advanced metal fabrication techniques, Al Afnan was able to provide a high strength, lightweight solution for their transporting components without compromising integrity. Their custom metal fabrication utilized variable thickness designs and placed material in areas where structural analysis showed the material was actually needed with regard to the overall strength of the vehicle. This ultimately provided a 12% reduction in the weight of the vehicle.
In one situation a manufacturing facility had an emergency failure of a component, parts supplied from the OEM had a 12-week lead time – which was unacceptable.
Solution: Al Afnan Metals utilized their rapid-response metal fabrication team to assess the failed components, proposed improvements to prevent reoccurrence and custom fabricated replacement parts with a total lead-time of 72 hours – ultimately saving the client thousands of dollars in wasted production.
In a competitive marketplace, often the thin dividing line between success and failure is the company’s ability to solve technical problems. Professional metal fabrication serves as a vital decision bridge between theoretical engineering and practical/worthwhile implementation of engineered results for the impossible specification of material.
When your business has metal component challenges that require a specialty fabrication solution, then the technical expertise and problem-solving power of an appropriate metal fabrication partner is vital. Al Afnan Metals was founded upon solving challenging, complex problems and converting these requirements into engineered solutions—in the real world with expectations for performance, durability, and cost effective results.
Consistent with design of new equipment, upgrades to old designs or fixes to your endless cycle of failures you are experiencing, partnering with the right metal fabrication expert is the only solution to convert your experiences of frustration to a breakthrough.
For your most challenging technical problems, we invite you to understand how Al Afnan Metals approach to metal fabrication engineering can solution your challenges and walk you through your own journey by visiting Al Afnan Metals.
