FOCUS ON SHEET METAL smelted iron in India date back to 1800 BCE . Egyptian jewellery also utilised natural metals ( such as copper , silver and gold ) for sheet metalworking . Copper was the first metal to be widely used in ancient Egypt , dating back to around 4000 BCE . Bronze , an alloy of copper and tin , emerged around 3000 BCE and became the predominant metal for tools , weapons and various other objects .
In the late 10th century BC , the introduction of ironworking in Greece heralded the Iron Age in Europe . Basic armour and weapons were made by the Ancient Greeks by working iron ore . The Romans were prolific miners and users of iron for a range of cookware , cutlery , door fittings and various other sheet metal items .
Steel production can be traced back to early blacksmiths in the 13th century who discovered that iron become harder , stronger and more durable when carbon was introduced after being left in coal furnaces . Blacksmiths would heat iron until it glowed red hot before dipping it into water or oil ( quenching ). These qualities improved with repeated heating , folding and beating of the material as smiths forged the metal , which was much prized for armour and weapons . An archaeological find in Cyprus indicates that craftsmen were producing quenchhardened steel knives as early as
1100 BCE . Above : Armour on display at
Steel The Metropolitan Museum of Art , manufacturing in New York ( image : Ember
India was perceived Navarro , Unsplash ). as a highly skilled , labour-intensive art with the creation of , for example , Damascus steel swords which were strong and could be sharpened to a fine , but durable , edge .
Medieval and Renaissance metalworking
Iron , bronze and steel was used for armour and weaponry in the Middle Ages such as plate armour ( large steel or iron plates linked by rivets ). Iron manufacture in the Middle Ages was the result of three practices : mining , smelting and smithing . In addition to hand-hammering , medieval metalworkers could also use water-powered trip hammers to work out the impurities in blooms of iron , shape the blooms into ingots and shape those ingots into flat plate . Water-powered polishing wheels would also be used to polish the metal surfaces to a smooth finish .
One example of expert armouries were the royal workshops at Greenwich ( England ) which were the main suppliers of armour
Armour of George Clifford , 3rd Earl of Cumberland ( 1558 – 1605 ), UK , from 1586 ( Image : Jacob Halder : Wikimedia Commons / Metropolitan Museum of Art ).
to the monarch and court from the reign of Henry VIII ( 1491-1547 ) until the Civil War . Greenwich armours were frequently designed as garnitures i . e . with removable , interchangeable pieces to make them adaptable to different purposes . The workshops were also notable for their elaborate decorative style .
Over the medieval period , production
Sheet metalworking has ancient roots and a long , revered history of craftmanship and innovation
techniques became more refined and wrought iron was manufactured in large quantities using water-powered bellows . At the start of the Renaissance , the concepts that have influenced modern processes of sheet metal fabrication started to be expressed ( such as the rolling mill , first designed by Leonardo da Vinci around 1480 but not put into practice until the 17th century ) and cold bar rolling into thin sheet metal parts .
The Industrial Revolution
Using coke for the smelting process from 1709 , Abraham Darby was able to manufacture thin , durable and cheap cast iron . The introduction of this new process kickstarted a major increase in European cast-iron production , and was one of the key enabling factors for a crucial milestone in manufacturing , the Industrial Revolution .
The Industrial Revolution heralded a new era for sheet metal and the modernisation of the sheet metal fabrication process . Innovations and inventions included press brakes ; rolling mills ; assembly lines ; hydraulic presses ; the steam engine and steam / aluminium hammers . This led to the start of a new age in iron production . Pit coal became the heat source of choice for the manufacturing of cast iron .
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