The raw material used in sheet metal manufacturing is the output of the rolling process. Normally, sheets are sold as flat rectangular sheets of standard size. If the sheets are long, they may be rolled. Therefore, the first step in any sheet metal process is to cut the correct shape and select the "blank" from the larger worksheet. Sheet metal processing is an important process in many industries, including household appliances (refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, vacuum cleaners, etc.), electronic products (DVD and CD players, audio, radio, etc.), toys and personal computers. Most of these products have metal shells made by cutting and bending metal plates. Let's look at some basic sheet metal cutting and forming processes.

Precision sheet metal cutting is similar to the process of cutting a piece of paper with scissors, but the machines used are somewhat different. There are two typical machines for cutting sheets of metal - the first is a shearing machine, which has a long blade for cutting straight lines; it is used to cut long pieces of metal into smaller pieces. The operation is similar to that of a paper-cut machine: the sheet metal is kept at the top of the hardened die, and the cutting blade is cut downward, usually driven by an electric or hydraulic punch.

Another sheet metal punch - cutting tool is a punch, a piece of hard tool steel, it is punched on the board to cut a hole. The punch is a turret punch - turntable is a rotating tool holder, can accommodate dozens of different shapes and sizes of punches, the typical shape is rectangular and circular. Through a series of punching, long slots can be cut out. A typical punching operation is similar to a punching operation that you might have used to punch paper into a three-ring binder.