metalworking
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thumb|A fireman turning a bar of metal on a lathe on the USS Harry S. Truman in 2004 Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges, down to precise engine parts and delicate jewellery.
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- Metalworking
- ISCO-88 occupation class
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~30 min read
Article
28 sectionsContents
- Prehistory
- History
- General processes
- Casting
- Forming processes
- Bulk forming processes
- Sheet (and tube) forming processes
- Cutting processes
- Health effects
- Milling
- Turning
- Threading
- Grinding
- Filing
- Other
- Joining processes
- Welding
- Brazing
- Soldering
- Riveting
- Mechanical fixings
- Associated processes
- Heat treatment
- Plating
- Thermal spraying
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|A fireman turning a bar of metal on a lathe on the USS Harry S. Truman in 2004 Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges, down to precise engine parts and delicate jewellery.
The historical roots of metalworking predate recorded history; its use spans cultures, civilizations and millennia. It has evolved from shaping soft, native metals like gold with simple hand tools, through the smelting of ores and hot forging of harder metals like iron, up to and including highly technical modern processes such as machining and welding. It has been used as an industry, a driver of trade, individual hobbies, and in the creation of art; it can be regarded as both a science and a craft.