When I still work in an international car manufacturing company most of the time we are seeking the help of metal suppliers during our jig fabrication. If you are not familiar with jigs here is a short explanation; Jigs are types of metal most often made with tool steel to guide pieces of machine work during welding operation. In a car manufacturing company jigs serves as the mold that will guide semi-knock-down pieces of galvanized iron (GI) sheet that would be welded eventually to form the body of certain car model. Jigs could be made of different types of materials like aluminum, brass, cast iron, or stainless steel depending on the needs of the production company. Jig design and fabrication is difficult at times though, but what really matter is the metal suppliers’ capability to provide the needed specification of materials to use at a given lead time.
In the United States like in Southern California and in Phoenix Arizona, you can always count on Industrial Metal Supply Company (IMS) for all types of metal supplies that any manufacturing company needs. IMS is a one stop metal shop family run company which has been into this type of business for more than 60 years (since 1948). One of the best offering they have is selling remnant parts so whenever a customer needs only a certain portion of particular type of metal the latter does not have to shell out huge sum of money to buy the whole piece. Customers can come to their warehouse to buy the metal, but they also offer delivery through UPS and common carriers if the customer is in other parts of the country.
For more details I suggest you watch the video below:
