Sheet metal

Sheet metal processing came into use in Europe from the High and Late Middle Ages. Iron sheets were used mainly for making knights armor. Rolling metal was still unknown at that time. Instead, the sheets were worked with hammers until they had the desired thickness.

Since the work of iron extraction up to the present product was very laborious and time-consuming, sheet iron was a sought-after and expensive commodity. In addition, sheet metal working required a high degree of practice and experience, since the starting materials were processed exclusively by hand with the help of the simplest tools. It was not until large hammers driven by water power made their way into metal processing that significant improvements were noticeable. Nevertheless, the manufacturing process could still take several days, depending on the size of the sheet.

During the Industrial Revolution, which began in England in about 1780 and spread to other European countries in the 19th century, the first metalworking machines were developed. These machines made it possible to roll metals to produce sheet metal. This significantly shortened the production time, while at the same time lowering the price. As the quality of the sheets also improved in terms of their flatness and thickness, new fields of application were quickly found in a wide variety of sectors.

Today, there are a large number of methods available for processing metals or sheet metal that are suitable for a wide variety of metals, material thicknesses and formats. In many fields of application, the former manual work has now been replaced by automation solutions.