High-Quality Sheet Metal Supplies

NCE – Australia’s Preferred Supplier of Sheet Metal

Having been a leading supplier of acoustic enclosures, louvres, barriers, attenuators, and other types of acoustic products and services in Australia for over 40 years, Noise Control Engineering (NCE) also offers its customers sheet metal for all kinds of metalworking. No matter what commercial or industrial application you need sheet metal for, NCE is ready to provide you with the full range of sheet metal with the necessary gauge and physical characteristics for your needs.

By general definition, sheet metal refers to metal (steel, stainless steel, aluminium, etc.) produced in the form of flat and thin panels. It can be supplied either as flat pieces of particular dimensions or as coiled strips of metal. The major feature of sheet metal is called gauge, and it refers to the thickness of the metal sheet. The standard gauges may vary from about 3 to 38. The general rule says that the higher the gauge number, the thinner the sheet metal is. For example, gauge 8 for steel means that the sheet metal is 0.1644 mm thick, and gauge 16 for the same material defines the sheet metal thickness as 0.0598 mm.

The field of applications for sheet metal is really vast. It is one of the most frequently used materials in all industries today: from car building to aviation and from civil construction and military industry to multiple household goods. Hundreds of products, in the production of which sheet metal was used, surround us in our everyday lives.

Sheet metal is usually only a type of raw material that is used for further manufacturing of multiple end details or products through different kinds of metal forming processes, including but not limited to punching, stamping, bending, perforating, welding, etc. NCE offers a range of sheet metal suitable for turret punching (cutting multiple custom-shaped details from the blanks of sheet metal) or stamping/forming with CNC (computerised numerical control) brake press equipment. 

Of course, once necessary, the sheet metal itself or the details produced from it can be welded either through common and frequently used MIG or alternative TIG welding processes (the latter ensures the highest quality of welds).

Speaking about sheet metal, it may also be valuable to mention some of the metal grades that are available in sheet forms. Stainless steel of the three grades, 304, 316, and 410, is available as sheet metal, with grade 304 being the most commonly used. Aluminium is also available in sheet metal. Grades 1100-H14, 3003-H14, 5052-H32, and 6061-T6 are most commonly offered in sheet metal form, with the first mentioned grade being pure aluminium and the latter being the hardest aluminium alloy among those mentioned.