10 min read
Design and CAD
→Gussets for sheet metal: where a gusset actually helps
Gussets in sheet metal frames: when a corner needs one, how long and thick it should be, the weld arithmetic and the cases where it makes a part worse.
Ganesh engineering library
Sheet metal, explained by the people who make it
377 guides on stamping, laser cutting, bending, welding, coating and the parts we build for lift, power, data centre, railway and farm equipment. Every article is reviewed by the engineering team before it is published.
- 377
- published guides
- 14
- topic hubs
- 3 Nov 2026
- last technical review
Browse by topic
Nine clusters, each mapped to a capability or product page.
32Stamping, presses and press toolsPressed, punched and deep drawn sheet metal parts, the tooling that makes them, and the DFM rules that decide whether a part suits a press at all.29Laser cutting and sheet metal fabricationFibre laser cutting, nesting, edge quality, tolerance and the cost drivers behind a cut part, including long panels cut on the 40 ft × 16 ft bed.38Bending, welding and finished assembliesPress brake bending, bend allowance, fixtures, robotic MIG welding, distortion control and the tolerances a finished welded assembly can actually hold.28Surface treatment and powder coatingSeven-tank pretreatment, phosphating, shot blasting, powder and wet paint selection, film thickness and the failure modes that show up two monsoons later.22Elevator and lift componentsCounterweight frames, car frames, slings, guide rail brackets, door panels and controller enclosures made to lift OEM drawings.24Genset, canopy and acoustic enclosuresDG set canopies, acoustic panels, louvres, base frames, skid bases and control panel enclosures, engineered for weather, access and noise.28Data centre racks and electrical enclosures19-inch rack frames, mounting rails, perforated doors, blanking panels, PDU brackets and the electrical enclosures around them.16Tractor, forklift and material handlingTractor panels and brackets, forklift overhead guards, counterweight covers, mast parts and material handling components built for vibration and abuse.16Railway, furniture and infrastructureRailway coach panels, underframe brackets, fittings, metal furniture frames, shelving and signage, where standards and traceability carry as much weight as the part.38Materials and gradesGrade selection for CRCA, stainless, aluminium, brass and copper: formability, thickness, corrosion and what the mill certificate actually guarantees.30Standards and complianceWhich standard applies, what it actually covers, and the evidence a buyer should ask for: ISO, IEC, EN, RDSO and material certification.44Design and CADDesign rules, CAD hand-off, bend allowances, tolerance stacks and the drawing notes that decide whether a part is made right first time.4Applications and casesApplication-led problems from lift shafts, genset sites, data halls, railway coaches, farms and warehouses, and how the part is designed around them.28Plant, quality and sustainabilityHow the plants run: quality systems, inspection, calibration, pretreatment chemistry, effluent, maintenance, energy and scrap.
All guides, page 22
Search the library →10 min read
Plant and quality
→Compressed air leaks: the hidden cost in a fabrication shop
A 1 mm hole at 6.9 bar costs about 2,000 kWh a year. How to measure the leak load with a leak-down test, find the leaks, and prove the repair worked.
11 min read
Laser cutting
→Laser cutting copper sheet design: holes, slots and kerf
Hole, slot and web sizes that survive a fibre laser in copper, the kerf allowance that keeps a pocket to size, and a nesting example worth 12% of the sheet.
10 min read
Bending and welding
→Minimum flange length for press brake parts
Minimum flange length by thickness and die opening, why a short flange drops into the die, and how to design below the limit without losing the bend angle.
10 min read
Design and CAD
→STEP files for sheet metal: what a supplier needs in the model
What a STEP model must carry before a sheet metal quote: units, body count, wall thickness, bend direction and the flat pattern basis behind it.
10 min read
Laser cutting
→Laser cutting for prototypes and production volumes
Why a five-part lot costs 786 seconds of work per part and a thousand-part lot costs 93, and how the nest, drawing and inspection change as volume rises.
10 min read
Design and CAD
→Bend relief for sheet metal: where to put it and how wide
Bend relief depth is a bend allowance, not a bend radius. Why the usual R + t rule under-sizes the notch, the width that works by material, and where to put it.
11 min read
Design and CAD
→Design for assembly: locate, fasten, mistake-proof
Locate before you fasten, count the fasteners, and make the wrong build impossible. Tab clearances, hole floats and stack-ups for sheet metal assemblies.
11 min read
Coating
→Pretreatment for fabricated frames: seven-tank process
Pretreatment for fabricated frames: blasting weld scale, seven-tank phosphating, drain holes, oven expansion and the DFT and salt spray values a frame drawing should carry.
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