Furniture

Metal spinning—also called spin forming or metal turning—is a manufacturing process that machines metal pieces from cylinders or flat disks. Metal is spun throughout forming operations, so each material shift is symmetrical and the finished pieces have a circular cross-section. Metal spinning is a useful manufacturing process for creating a wide variety of commercial and industrial parts, including high-quality parts for furniture.

Metal spinning works well with different metallic bases to create clean, aesthetically pleasing shapes, and the parts themselves offer suitable strength and durability for furnishing purposes. Metal spinning offers furniture manufacturers several benefits, including efficient processes, cost-effectiveness, durable end products, reaching niche audiences with hand-spun furniture, and more.

Metal Spinning Is a Fast, Efficient Way to Create Furniture

One of metal spinning’s biggest advantages is the speed of the process. CNC spinning equipment improves the processing time over hand-spun pieces for furniture companies. This also creates an ideal solution for furniture makers who want to increase their product offerings with both standard and hand-spun furnishings.

The spinning process consistently applies forming tools on all sides of the workpiece as it rotates, which minimizes the need for finishing steps and corrections later in the process. Key benefits of this fast manufacturing method include:

• Reliable supply. Furniture manufacturers need reliable suppliers who deliver components on time and on budget. Since metal spinning is fast and efficient, furniture companies can better accommodate unexpected upticks without stockouts.
• Larger production runs within tight schedules. Metal spinning processes have a fast per-unit machining time, which compounds into a faster turnaround for the entire order. For many automated processes, the greatest potential time loss is switching the machinery’s commands and resetting the workstations to process new orders. Large orders of the same metal spun furniture pieces are faster to produce, leading to drastic reductions in lead times.

Metal Spinning Is a Cost-Effective Method

This manufacturing technique is well-known for creating smooth pieces with clean lines and well-formed shapes, even as the pieces become more ornate and complex. The predictability and repeatability of metal spinning ensures that there is less finishing work for manufacturing teams to handle manually or through automated polishing equipment. The machines make precisely the right tooling steps to create consistent forms that match the original design with little-to-no variation, which is ideal for large-scale production runs or national furniture brands.

Another key advantage of this production method is the relatively low waste of material. The spinning process uses tools to push and bend the metal into the right position rather than simply cutting away all excess material. This helps reduce the total material cost of furniture pieces in three ways:

1- Smaller stock: The initial material stock can be smaller than what is used in other cutting-based machining processes because they don’t have to account for lost material. Manufacturers can instead use the same base amount of metal to create more workpieces for processing. This reduces transportation costs, material costs, and cleanup.

2- Less waste: Each workpiece is used to the fullest. The metal is formed throughout the metal spinning process instead of being cut away and thrown out. This reduction in material waste makes production more cost-effective.

3- Fewer defects: Metal spinning offers a predictable and precise performance. When fewer pieces are discarded due to flaws, the per-order material requirements are lower than with less precise manufacturing processes.

Create Durable Furniture Pieces with Metal Spinning

Furniture needs to be durable to hold consumer confidence and to create a strong sense of brand recognition. Metal spun pieces deliver that long-term strength and durability. The technique works with a wide variety of metal bases, so companies never have to choose a metal with weak structural integrity just to create decorative elements. In fact, spinning works best with strong metals that can withstand the force of metal spinning without breaking or splinting.

When the metal workpieces are first formed, they have uninterrupted grain lines throughout the metal sheet or stock material. Rather than breaking the grain lines, metal spinning compresses the grain of the metal and makes it stronger, resulting in stronger final parts. Other common metal fabrication processes often work against the grain of the metal or cut through it, weakening the overall strength of the material.

Hand-Spun Furniture

Hand-spun furniture is a popular consumer trend. Manufacturers can use hand-spinning techniques that incorporate metal spinning techniques to improve the process without losing the hand-spun element. While many companies are doing away with hand-spinning entirely, we believe that it’s important to hold onto a wide variety of techniques to create high-quality furniture pieces that meet consumer demand.

Hand-spun furniture is unique, high-quality, and can be customized to suit the particulars of different orders. We expect that artisan furniture will continue to be popular among consumer styles and home design trends and will continue to maintain equipment to support this trend.

Choose Metal Craft S&S for High-Quality Metal Spinning

Metal spinning is a fast, efficient, and reliable manufacturing process that spins metal workpieces and forms them into stylized furniture components. This process guarantees faster production and less material waste compared to many other popular manufacturing techniques. It also creates higher quality products due to the uniformity of the spinning process and the durability the process imbues into the metal.

Metal Craft Spinning & Stamping specializes in creating metal spun furniture pieces with CNC machines, hydraulic presses, hand-spinning equipment. Our family-owned company has been producing high-quality metal pieces for over 55 years and our business is built on long-lasting customer service and attention to detail. Our engineers work with each customer from design and prototyping through final production to ensure that we meet or exceed every specification.

Contact our team today to learn more about our manufacturing capabilities and material sourcing.