Sheet metal, cut and bent to one finished part — not four separate vendors.

Laser-cut and press-brake formed steel, stainless, aluminum, copper and titanium, welded, fitted with hardware and finished under the same quote. One engineer specs the whole part against your drawing, so cutting, bending, welding and finish never drift apart.

Get my sheet metal quote →See materials & gauges ↓

Quick definition

Sheet metal bending (press-brake forming) shapes a flat, laser-cut blank into a 3D part by clamping it between a punch and a die and applying force along a straight line — the process behind enclosures, brackets, panels and chassis. It's paired with laser cutting, which produces the flat blank in the first place, so the two are usually specified and run as a single step.

One part, four stagesRun under one quote
1Laser cutThe flat blank
2Press-brake bendFormed to shape
3Weld & hardwareSeams, PEM inserts, studs
4FinishCoat, anodize or polish
One quote, one lead time, one invoice — not four vendors.
3–5 daystypical lead time for a small batch, depending on shop load
0.8–6mmstandard gauge range across steel, stainless, aluminum, copper and titanium
1 → thousandsparts per order — no fixed minimum, price sets the floor
Cut → finishedcutting, bending, welding, hardware and finish, all under one quote
Powder-coated bent steel bracket with clean, sharp bend lines
Cut, bent and powder-coated under the same quote — no separate vendor to coordinate for the finish.
Welded stainless steel sheet metal enclosure with installed hardware
Welded, tapped and fitted with hardware before it ever reaches finishing.

One drawing, one owner

Sheet metal usually means four vendors, not one.

Cut it, bend it, weld it, fit the hardware, finish it — sourced separately, that's a cutting shop, a brake shop, a welder and a finisher, each with their own lead time and their own idea of what the drawing means. Send the same file to OperGo and one engineer specs all of it against the same drawing, so the bend allowance, the weld callout and the finish are locked in before the first cut — not discovered when the parts don't stack.

Sourced vendor by vendor
  • A separate quote — and a separate lead time — for cutting, bending, welding and finish
  • Bend allowance and weld prep re-interpreted by every vendor in the chain
  • Hardware and inserts sourced and tracked outside the metal itself
  • No single owner if the finished assembly doesn't fit
The OperGo way
  • Cutting, bending, welding, hardware and finish specified against one drawing, by one engineer
  • One quote, one lead time, one invoice for the whole part
  • Hardware, inserts and finish confirmed before the first cut — not after
  • One quality check on the finished part, not one per vendor

What we run

Four stages, one supplier.

Laser cutting

The flat blank behind every bent part — cut from steel, stainless, aluminum, copper, brass or titanium to the tolerance the bend needs, not just the outline.

Press-brake bending

Flat blanks folded into enclosures, brackets and panels, with bend allowance calculated per material and gauge — not one generic formula applied to everything.

Welding & hardware

Seams welded, PEM inserts pressed and studs fitted before the part ever leaves for finishing — not a separate job for a separate shop.

Finishing

Anodizing, powder coating, painting or polishing, specified and applied under the same quote as the metal itself.

Under one quote

What "one quote" actually includes.

One drawing, every process

Cutting, bending, welding, hardware and finish specified together — nothing gets reinterpreted between steps.

One invoice, one lead time

The whole part is one line on one PO, not four vendors to chase separately.

ISO 9001:2015 certified

The same certified quality system covers the finished part, not just the raw cut.

The spec sheet

Materials and gauges we form.

Materials & gauges · Sheet metalcut → finished
Carbon steelCORTEN weathering steel, mild steel (DC01), laser-pickled S275JR and galvanized DX51D — 0.8mm to 10mm depending on grade.
Stainless steel304 and 316L in 2B mill, BA mirror or G240 ground finish, 0.8mm to 6mm, plus 430 for a lower-cost magnetic grade — 316L for marine or washdown environments.
Aluminum1050, 3003, 5052 and 5754 for cutting and bending, 1mm to 6mm. 6061-T6 sheet is also available cut-only: its temper cracks under a press brake, so bent parts run in 5052 or 5754 instead.
Copper & brassC110 electrolytic copper and C260 half-hard brass, up to 3mm — both reflective enough to need a high-power fiber laser, with bending limited on the harder tempers.
TitaniumGrade 2 sheet, 0.8mm to 3mm, cut under inert gas (N2/Ar) to keep the edge from oxidizing.
FinishingAnodizing (aluminum), powder coating, painting and polishing, specified under the same quote as the metal itself.
Tolerance & sizeCut tolerance typically ±0.1mm; bend tolerance typically ±0.5–1° angular and ±0.15mm on flange length — standard across the industry. Sheets up to roughly 2 × 1m, confirmed against the exact machine at quoting.

Full range of materials and finishes on Materials & finishes →

Picking a process

Sheet metal is the right call — until it isn't.

Sheet metal vs. CNC machining →

Sheet metal wins on large, thin-walled enclosures and brackets at a lower cost per part. CNC wins when the part needs a machined pocket, a tapped hole pattern, or geometry a flat blank can't fold into.

Bending vs. a flat, unbent part →

If your part is flat — a plate, a panel, a flat bracket — laser cutting alone is faster and cheaper than adding a bend. Bending only earns its cost once the part actually needs to be three-dimensional.

Still not sure this is the right process?

Send the part and an engineer matches it to the right process — sheet metal, CNC or molding — based on wall thickness and geometry, not a guess.

Sheet metal bending, answered

What's included in a sheet metal quote — just cutting and bending?

No — cutting, bending, welding, hardware (PEM inserts, studs, threaded fasteners) and finish are specified and priced together, against the same drawing. You get one part, one lead time and one invoice, not a chain of vendors to coordinate yourself.

What tolerances can you hold on a laser-cut and bent part?

Cut tolerance is typically ±0.1mm on most gauges. Bend tolerance is typically ±0.5–1° angular and roughly ±0.15mm on flange length — standard for laser cutting and press-brake forming across the industry, confirmed against your exact geometry at quoting.

Can 6061-T6 aluminum sheet be bent?

Not reliably — its temper is prone to cracking along the bend line. If your part needs bending in aluminum, 5052-H32 or 5754-H111 are the standard substitutes; 6061-T6 sheet is still available for parts that are laser-cut only, like flat plates or brackets that bolt together instead of folding.

Can you cut copper or brass sheet?

Yes — C110 electrolytic copper and C260 half-hard brass, both up to 3mm. Both are reflective enough that they need a high-power fiber laser to cut cleanly, and bending is limited on the harder tempers, which your engineer will flag if your geometry calls for it.

Do you also bend tube, or just sheet?

Both, but as different capabilities: sheet is folded flat-blank-first on a press brake, while round and square tube is curved around a die on a CNC tube bender — see Tube Bending under capabilities. If a part mixes the two, one engineer quotes both halves together.

What's the minimum order quantity?

There's no fixed minimum — price is what naturally limits very small orders, not a policy. A single bent bracket gets quoted the same way a batch of a thousand does.

How fast can I get a sheet metal part?

3 to 5 business days minimum for a small batch, depending on shop load — we don't hold a machine idle waiting on a job, so your engineer confirms a real date at quoting rather than a fixed promise upfront.

What if sheet metal isn't the right process for my part?

Then your engineer says so at quoting. If your part needs a machined pocket, a tapped hole a flat blank can't provide, or a volume where a molded part would be cheaper, they'll requote it under the right process instead. Opening this page doesn't commit you to one.

When a flat part is enough →

Laser cutting alone, for parts that stay flat and don't need to fold.

Cut bending cost before you quote →

The bend-radius and hole-to-edge calls that decide tooling and cycle time.

See all capabilities →

CNC machining, injection molding, 3D printing and everything else we run.

Materials × process

Materials we run in sheet metal bending.

Sourced, produced and finished under one quote. Tap a material to see the other processes it runs on — material and process are two axes you combine, not one nested inside the other.

SteelStainless SteelAluminumAll materials & finishes →

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