Perforated Panels are one the most popular forms of sheet metal in the construction industry. These panels require industrial machines to punch or stamp them for creating practical patterns such as holes. Perforated pates, perforated sheets and perforated screens are other names of these products. They all contain aluminum composites, pre-painted galvanized steel, copper, zinc and stainless steel in their structure. Manufacturing these panels started about a hundred and fifty years ago, and the main reason for their production was coal filtering utilization in mining projects. The drawback of these products was that the laborer had to punch the holes into the sheet metal manually, and it was inefficient. Fortunately, nowadays, manufacturers improved the process by utilizing machines to increase punching needles speed with particular patterns.
In the modern era, architects and designers prefer to utilize perforated panels for interior and exterior projects and other industrial materials such as aluminum-composite panels. These practical products can create new and creative designs and eco-conscious and performance efficiency with their aesthetic appearance. Architects and builders recommend these panels for construction applications due to their functionality and sustainability, especially in developing renovation and current projects, including remodeling and building. Designers benefit from the various color finishes that perforated panels come with and allow them to have limitless imagination and ideas for developing modern-looking and unique appearance for residential and commercial facilities.
The aesthetic appearance and beauty of perforated panels is not the only reason for producing these panels. They also provide sound insulation, thermal expansion requirements, safety, and light balance for the facility. The production process of perforated panels allows them to have robust, functional and precise combination characteristics. Along with other popular industrial materials such as aluminum plates, perforated panels are very cost-effective materials for improving the exterior and interior while creating an atmosphere of light and space. It is best to know about the perforated panels’ manufacturing process to ensure the most suitable material for any demanding project.
Production Procedure of Perforated Panels
The perforated panels and sheets often begin with a coil o sheet metal that requires thickness or gauge. Sheet metal is a thin and flavorless metal material that is easy to bend or cut into any demanding shapes and patterns. Some regions or even countries define and specify the thickness in the term of gauge. The larger the gauge estimate, the thinner the substance is. Some of the manufacturers measure sheet metals in millimeters.
Producing modern perforated panels relies on few fundamental and practical methods. Each method has its particular purposes, advantages, and values. The perforated panels’ primary production industrial process includes Rotary Pinned Perforation, Laser Perforation, and Punch Press. Here are brief and practical introductions to three of the methods above.
Punch Pressing Perforated Panels
Manufacturers produce the majority of perforated panels using punch press machines. These devices or machines contain customizable sharp tools and choosing the right tool depends on the demanding holes and shapes sizes. They are various types of punch presses available in the industry.
One of the devices is called wide punch press, which consists of long rows of ram, and in this type of press, manufacturers pass the metal through the machine and the rams strike and perforate an entire row of holes and patterns in only one momentum. Thus, this method is one of the fastest perforation systems.
Another practical punch press machine is the XY axis device. The XY axis does not contain long rows of tools but features a single die or a limited amount of clump of rams to punch the pattern. In this machine, the die or ram moves across the fixed panel, section by section and creates perforated panels that require complex designs or non-repetitive patterns.
Both of the punch press machines do not produce perforation at a specific amount of panel along the length to allow the installers to create margins or solid blanks in the product’s edges during installation.
Rotary Pinned System for Perforated Panel
The rotary pinned perforation process has become one of the most efficient systems of developing perforated sheets while offering high-quality standards. The machine features large cylinders that contain pointed and sharp needles along its outside section. Manufacturers move the panel underneath the machine, and then the device starts rotating the sharp tools, and the cylinder punches the sheet that passes below for creating holes on it. In some cases, it is essential to heat the needles to melt the sheet metal inside the targeting holes. The rotary pinned method is perfect for fortifying rings and increasing the strength or, in a better way, the product’s load-resistance property. The rotation speed of cylinders is considerably fast, making the process optimal for punching many identical holes at a high rate.
Laser Perforation
The most modern and focused method for producing perforated panels is laser perforation. The technique utilizes accurate beams to create holes by burning the sheet metal’s surface under production. The advantage of laser perforation is its precision, but it has a drawback: its time consuming and costly function when it comes to large volumes of demands.