Metalworking processes

Metalworking is the process of forming and reforming metals to produce practical items, components, assemblies, and large-scale constructions. The phrase "manufacturing" encompasses a broad and varied range of procedures, aptitudes, and equipment for creating things on all scales, from enormous ships, structures, and bridges down to minute engine components and delicate jewellery. Metalworking has been practised for millennia and throughout cultures, civilizations, and time periods. Its origins precede written history. It has progressed from forging and hot forging stronger metals like iron and harder native metals like gold with basic hand tools to highly complex modern techniques like welding and machining. Despite being many and specialised, modern metalworking processes may be divided into one of three major categories known as forming, cutting, or joining processes. Modern machine shops, sometimes referred to as metalworking workshops, are equipped with a wide range of specialised and general-purpose machine tools that can produce extremely accurate, practical products. Some of the more basic metalworking methods, like blacksmithing, are still used in less developed nations for artisanal or hobby work or historical reenactment. However, many of these are no longer commercially competitive on a wide scale in industrialised nations.