10 min read
Plant and quality
→Salt spray interpretation: what counts as failure
How to read a 480 h or 720 h salt spray report: scribe creep in mm, blister size and frequency, rust area, and the limits to write on the drawing.
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 31
Search the library →11 min read
Tractor and forklift
→Forklift mast bracket design: tolerances, DFM and inspection
Forklift mast bracket design for 8–12 mm plate: the weld that survives tilt reversal, bore positions that let the mast drop on, and the checks that catch it.
11 min read
Laser cutting
→Thick plate laser cutting: process, gas and edge quality
Thick plate laser cutting on a 12 kW fibre laser: gas choice, focus, cut speed and edge quality for 10–20 mm steel, with the limits that decide the route.
9 min read
Bending and welding
→Welding aluminium sheet assemblies
Welding aluminium sheet assemblies: filler choice, cleaning window, current range and the heat-affected zone strength that decides the joint design.
10 min read
Bending and welding
→Welding inspection and traceability for sheet metal
Welding inspection and traceability: which quality level to call out, what to measure at each stage, and how the record survives coating and dispatch.
10 min read
Plant and quality
→Paint shop effluent treatment: what the ETP treats
What a paint shop effluent treatment plant actually receives, the chemistry that removes phosphate and zinc, the numbers that size it, and the records an auditor reads.
10 min read
Materials
→When 6061 aluminium is the wrong material for a part
Five conditions where 6061 aluminium costs more and performs worse, the grade that replaces it, and the weight arithmetic that decides the swap.
10 min read
Materials
→When galvanised steel is the wrong material for a part
Six situations where galvanised sheet loses to CRCA, pre-painted coil, aluminium, stainless or post-fabrication hot-dip, with the fit and weld numbers.
10 min read
Genset and canopies
→Canopy cable entry: design, failure modes and the fix
A gland plate that bows 3 mm and a 176 mm cable bend radius decide whether a canopy cable entry stays sealed. Design numbers and fixes.
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