Manufacturing Processes

Jefco Manufacturing produces high-quality hinges. We use in-house production equipment to create a wide selection of standard and customized hinges to meet a range of commercial and industrial needs. We use the following production methods to form our products:

CNC Laser Cutting

Laser cutting techniques produce sharp, clean edges that can meet any design tolerance. At Jefco Manufacturing, we use laser cutting equipment with laser optics and CNC automation to ensure every hinge has excellent dimensionality. This fabrication process uses a high-powered laser to cut custom shapes from workpieces and can work with a wide variety of metals, allowing us to produce customized and complex designs quickly.

CNC Water Jet Cutting

Water jet cutting uses a focused stream of highly pressurized water to cut through metals and other materials. Some water jet cutting techniques also use an abrasive agent in the stream of water to produce different cuts or to carve designs into thicker and harder metals. This method doesn’t produce a high degree of heat, so manufacturers use this technique on fragile workpieces or materials that high temperatures can otherwise damage.

Mechanical Metal Shearing

This process uses shear stress to cut or tear through the workpiece. Just like with scissors or shears, shear blades press the hinge material against a die or sharp edge. This pressure pushes down along a fine edge of the metal, causing the shear strength to fail and cutting through the metal. Mechanical shearing processes use a continually moving blade while the die stays in a fixed position to create smoother cuts. Shearing processes create less material waste in the form of chips. It also doesn’t involve heat.

CNC Turret Press Stamping

Turret press stamping punches holes into workpieces. It creates holes with custom shapes or dimensions by punching the same location with a multitude of different standard shapes in quick succession. It creates a completely custom part without the need for custom punching tools. This can save companies both time and money, since they can order a prototype or production run without delays and extra steps. CNC turret press stamping uses CNC to completely automate the process and ensure a much higher degree of control and accuracy.

Punch Press Stamping

Manufacturers can shape sheet metal through punching techniques, which press the sheet metal against upper and lower press tools with a high degree of force. Punching can either shape the metal’s surface or create holes in the material. Punching press stamping techniques include:

  • Bending
  • Blanking
  • Coining
  • Drawing
  • Embossing
  • Flanging
  • Forming
  • Piercing
  • Trimming

Press Brake Forming

Brake forming bends workpieces by clamping them between a punch and die set. These sets usually have V, U, or channel shapes to guide the shaping of the metal. This is one of the oldest existing metal forming techniques.

Punch Press Forming

In this process, manufacturers sandwich workpieces of sheet metal between two halves of a specifically shaped die. Then, the manufacturers use a press, which can generate large amounts of force and pressure, to press the workpiece into the shape of the die. Dies can both cut the exterior edge of the product and shape the surfaces.

Pin Spinning/Heading

Pin spinning creates axially symmetrical parts. The workpiece—typically a disc or tube—spins at high speeds around its center axis. Operators or CNC machinery can then remove excess material with cutting tools as the workpiece continues to spin. Metal spinning tools often have multiple spindles so they can perform multiple forming tasks simultaneously.

Custom Welding

Jefco Manufacturing also offers custom welding services. These processes use heat to melt and fuse two pieces of metal together. Our available welding services include:

  • Flux Cored Arc Welding (FCAW)
  • Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW/MIG)
  • Gas Tungsten Arc Gas Welding (GTAW/TIG)
  • Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)

 

Contact Jefco Manufacturing today to learn more about our manufacturing capabilities and how we can bring your next design to life.