5 Reasons Quality Assurance Matters When Working With Metal

Keeping your raw metal goods and stock materials in good order makes it much easier to get the most out of your in-house stock. Whether your manufacturing requirements mean that you must use large pieces of sheet metal or large blocks of material, the tips below can be helpful.

1. Thickness Measurement Tracking

On a large, thin piece of sheet metal, there are often chances that the piece will not be consistent across the span of the sheet. If the manufacturing requirements have some flexibility, it may make more sense to invest in large sheets and cut them from a pattern that creates many single, flat forms.

However, if the thickness and, accordingly, weight of the parts you’re creating are quite specific, it will make more sense to buy smaller sheet metal stock to make sure your parts are consistent. Your quality assurance team members can be looped in at the front end to confirm that metal thickness is consistent across small stock pieces.

2. Waste Reduction

Your design team may be the best crew to create proper tooling for most parts out of your metal raw goods. Your quality assurance team needs to be involved to make sure that any usable scrap is properly tagged, tracked, and stored.

Using scrap metal for a new project may be constrained by the industry you’re creating parts for. However, if scrap use is allowed, you’ll need to carefully track any raw goods remaining from any project so you can be certain to pull the right stock.

3. Storage Considerations

Many metals need to be degreased after shipping before it can be formed, stretched, or cut. However, if the metals that you’re working with have any risk of oxidation, your storage requirements may need to include a recoating of antioxidant product, such as a thin sheet of lubrication liquid.

If you don’t have a storage spot that can be effectively dehumidified, it may be best to stick with smaller stock pieces or invest in a method for relubricating new stock that you’ve cleaned for processing.

4. Deoxidation Requirements

There are many metals that allow only a bit of oxidation. Other metals are badly weakened by oxidation and run the risk of failure over time. Tracking the metals that are included in the parts you create will allow you to note if oxidation is a risk and whether or not an inventoried part will need to go through deoxidation before it can be shipped.

It’s important to note that some metals are protected from environmental risk once that coat of oxidation has formed.

5. Cleaning and Chemical Regulations

Finally, there are metals that can be chemically altered or etched when cleaned with a particular product. That etching may be your intention. However, a badly etched piece of metal may go from useful to scrap in a short time. Again, tracking the metal and planning ahead for proper use before you bring it out of stock is key.

Metals are not as simple as they seem. Depending on your industry, the storage and prepping processes can be quite involved. Bringing quality assurance in on the handling of raw stock and the measuring of completed products is key to success.