We know you don&#;t make money at the steel shop. You only make money once you have the material in your possession, cut to your desired sizes, and ready to install. However, to get to that point you need to place your order of steel first. However, buying steel is not as simple as ordering food at a fast-food joint. To make your steel purchasing experience a breeze, here are some tips on how to save time and money when buying steel.
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When you are starting your workday and looking at your to-do list, visiting the steel shop may be on it. So, when planning out your trip, it&#;s best to do so with a plan. Timing is everything as most steel shops deal with times they are the busiest and that happens to be during the middle of the day. Like you, most people start their day and gather a list of the material they need for the project they are working on.
It just happens to be a daily trend where people pop into the store when they have a moment to breathe &#; during lunch. We advise avoiding the lunch rush, most likely from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. Instead, come earlier in the day or later in the day. If you need plenty of cuts on your order, it&#;s best to come earlier in the to be serviced fastest. If you need a handful of cuts or simply need material pulled, it&#;s best to come later in the day as that will be quicker.
Certain steel projects do not need the prettiest steel. If you&#;re in such an advantageous situation, you have to opportunity to save money by purchasing surplus steel. With surplus, you may not always find the exact measurements you are looking for. But if you have some wiggle room, it&#;s a great option. Keep in mind that surplus steel will most likely have surface steel, and some may even be pitted. To avoid buying surplus steel that may be unusable to you, it&#;s best practice to check it out yourself before getting your credit card swiped to avoid any future headaches.
Even though you&#;re buying steel, paperwork still matters. If you are a company that qualifies for tax exemption, be sure to bring the correct paperwork to your sales representative. Ensure that the paperwork is up-to-date as this will speed up your future purchases because it will already be on file for your sales representative to pull up.
When planning your next project that involves steel, opt for carbon/mild steel. Of course, there are plenty of projects where mild steel won&#;t cut it &#; stainless steel for a kitchen job or aluminum for an outdoor project. But, for projects where you can utilize mild steel, it will most likely be your best option. For one, it will most often be the most readily available material. Also, more times than not, it will always be cheaper than aluminum or stainless.
If you know what materials you need for a project ahead of time, delivery will save you time and money. Most people associate delivery with simply saving time as they do not have to go to the shop to order their materials. However, when opting for delivery, you will not need to get your materials cut if you can do it yourself. The delivery truck will be able to haul the full-size material and you can save money on cutting charges.
Purchasing steel turns difficult when attempting to replace existing parts. This is because the material you are replacing may not exist in in-stock options. This can be attributed to manufacturers creating parts that are odd-sized to ensure that you will purchase replacement parts from them rather than an outside source.
Generally, you will have the easiest time procuring steel by opting for a common gauge and/or size of material. This will save you time by not having to call around from place to place looking for your material that may not exist or may not be easy to order. It will also save you money if the size does exist, but many places don&#;t carry it in stock, as you will most likely have to buy the material in bulk to have the steel shop order it.
Overall, nothing is more important than ensuring you&#;re ordering the right amount of material. You will need to measure your project accurately, which includes the total footage, the width of the material, and the thickness of the material. This will also ensure that if you need to purchase more, you will have trouble procuring it again. That said, nothing kills time more than returns. Make sure you are projecting for just a bit over your exact footage needed in case of any wrong cuts. Avoid purchasing an exorbitant amount of material as that will guarantee a trip back to the steel shop.
As you can see, buying steel isn&#;t as simple as ABC. But, it can be simplified. Next time you are visiting the steel shop, keep these tips in mind to make your next experience as painless as possible.
Are you in need of steel supplies? Look no further than the professionals at Tampa Steel and Supply. We stock an extensive list of steel products for whatever project you need to tackle. We&#;re proud to have served our customers for nearly four decades and are ready to assist you with your steel needs. Have questions? Give us a call today to learn more, or stop by our beautiful Tampa showroom.
Let&#;s start with this premise: Pre-plated sheet metal can&#;t be welded safely. When you super-heat the treated metal, the coatings release zinc oxide, a highly toxic compound that vaporizes into gas. Ultimately, that&#;s not good for workers, or the environment.
If welding is required, you have one choice. Use uncoated cold rolled steel. Afterward, you can get your parts coated to enhance anti-corrosion properties. The downside to this is that it will definitely increase your lead times and cost.
Instead, take a close look at your designs and see if there are ways to avoid welding. If you do that, you can use pre-plated steel. If joining sheets is critical, consider using rivets.
One of the easiest ways to save money and time is to incorporate geometries in your part designs that consider a manufacturer&#;s standard tooling. For example, internal bend radii should always be between 0.030 in. (0.762mm) and material thickness. These specifications tend to be in the wheelhouse for most shops. They will be able to form your radii with tools specifically made for these specs, rather than having to use a specialized toolset or an alternative method to get that precise geometry.
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These two go together. To start, aluminum (-T6 or -H32), steel (CRS), and stainless steel (304-2B) are common sheet metals that are always in stock, so you&#;re less likely to incur a special order fee from your manufacturer. Right there, you&#;ve saved money and time.
But choosing a material isn&#;t just about cost. If your parts will be in a hostile environment, choosing pre-plated metals makes a lot of sense. The exception, as mentioned earlier, is that you can&#;t use pre-plated materials such as galvanized and galvannealed metals if you need a welded seam.
Also, some materials are, by their very nature, less likely to corrode. If you do require a special finish, it might not set you back too much. There are common finishes that tend to be faster and less expensive.
Anodizing, chromate plating, zinc, stainless steel passivation, and powder coat are all readily available and will have a minimal impact on cost and lead time compared to a specialty finish.
Another reason to use more common materials and finishes is speed. Going with specialty materials and finishes requires estimators to source out external quotes, which adds lead time.
This is probably the easiest and most obvious of the tips to help you cut costs on sheet metal parts. Specialized design elements might look great, and sometimes there are good reasons for them, but taking them out of your models and aiming for simplicity is good practice. If you have to keep a careful eye on your budget, adding features such as machined pockets, blind holes, and chamfered edges could drive up costs and lead times. That said, chamfers, for example, give a nice finished look to your sheet metal parts and can limit the chance that users will injure themselves on sharp metal edges.
When you include punch-form features in your designs, such as bridge lances, embossments, and ribs, aim for standardized sizes to avoid manufacturing delays and added cost. If you do need very specific dimensions for these features, you should include that information in your RFQ by saying so in your model. For example, let&#;s say you request a bridge lance that is 0.100 in. (2.54mm) tall, 0.100 in. (2.54mm) wide, and 0.625 (15.875mm) in. long. Simply changing two of those dimensions to 0.090 in. (22.86mm) wide and 0.600 in. (15.24mm) long will put you into in-house tooling, reducing costs and time. You might discover suggestions like this if you get a Protolabs Proposed Revision (PPR) back from us.
You would be surprised how often we receive models that are filled with all sorts of data we don&#;t need to know. Typically, it&#;s something like details on hardware unrelated to the part we&#;re manufacturing for you. These are factors that may be critical to the overall assembly, but if your manufacturer isn&#;t involved in it in any way, it&#;s clutter that can slow down the estimating and manufacturing process. A good rule of thumb is that you should suppress any details in your models that aren&#;t pertinent to your manufacturer. Imagine putting in what you think is a request for one part, but getting billed and receiving two parts back. Surprise! So, this small rule can make a big difference.
Ordering fancy fasteners is a sure way to drive up costs and slow down manufacturing. It&#;s always best to stick with fasteners that are readily available, such as those in the PEM catalog. Its website has a solid inventory search tool that can let you know which suppliers/vendors have stock for any given PEM hardware item. Also, if you are looking for aluminum or 400 Series stainless steel hardware, it&#;s important to know that inventories can be inconsistent. PEM can supply these, but generally you&#;ll face a 10,000-piece minimum order and six to eight weeks of added lead time to get your special hardware. That means that you might have a whole lot of hardware lying around your warehouse that you might never need&#;an expense that could prove substantial.
Let&#;s say you want an assembly that includes built-in elements intended to hold specific components. One example might be card guides to hold circuit boards. Manufacturers can fabricate those guides in the sheet metal itself, but that takes a lot of time, and card guides are incredibly expensive tools costing more than $1,000. Instead, source your press fit card guide and adjust your design to accept the new component. Placing the guides is always in your team&#;s court, but the overall cost and time savings are undeniable when you create features that accommodate standard, off-the-shelf components.
Manufacturers can do a lot of wonderful things for you, but mindreading is not among them. Whenever you send a quote, make sure to include a hardware Bill of Materials (BOM). If you provide the precise name for the hardware you plan on using, our systems can look up those parts and, for example, create the perfect threads to accept a screw. BOMs can be included in prints, or in separate Word or Excel documents. You can even include them in the comments section. You can also use a BOM to refer to specific finishes, materials, and other requirements. Having this knowledge in hand means we don&#;t have to exchange a series of emails, slowing down the path to you getting your parts in hand. So, if time is money and accuracy is important to you, adding these notes is a smart idea.
If you&#;re in the early prototyping stages of product development, seeing the look of certain finishes on your parts may not be important to you. Instead, consider delaying finishes like silkscreening and engraving until later.
When you&#;re ready to explore various finishes, remember that silkscreening is expensive, but a whole lot more affordable than machine engraving. Sure, engraving is long-lasting, but the cost might make it impractical. Want to add permanence to your silkscreened elements? Try applying a clear powder coat to seal and cover that information. It will add time and cost to your parts, but may save you money in the long-term.
When you get a quote back from us, you will receive a detailed design analysis to improve the manufacturability of your parts. That helps, but it won&#;t necessarily make your parts less expensive.
So, if we see ways to save you money, we will also include PPRs free of charge. Basically, if there&#;s an opportunity to reduce sheet metal fabrication costs by improving the manufacturability of your design, the PPR will let you know right in the quote by outlining how much time and money you could save. These might include changes to designs such as using standardized bend radii or other basic adjustments to geometries or material. You have the choice to take our suggestions, or not. Just know that we have your back when it comes to best pricing.
For additional help, feel free to contact one of our applications engineers at 877-479- or [ protected]. To get your next design project started today, simply upload a 3D CAD model for a quote within hours.
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