Precision laser-cut and press-brake-formed stainless steel enclosure panel beside its flat blank

What sheet-metal fabrication can hold, and where the drawing has to say so.

Illuminious is a U.S. NPI engineering company. This is the capability sheet for sheet metal work: what cutting, forming, joining and finishing can hold, and which of those the drawing has to state rather than imply. Engineered in San Francisco. Prototype builds, DFM and mass production in our own factory in Shenzhen. Upload your files, get a free engineering review, and pay only the official quote that review publishes.

A sheet metal part is four processes under one name: cutting the blank, forming the bends, joining or adding hardware, and finishing the surface. Each stage has its own tolerance. An enclosure comes back wrong when the drawing does not say which stage owns the critical dimension.

Two ways in: configure it online and a specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days, or send the job to an engineer. Engineering review is free either way and comes before you pay.

Payment: Official price after free review
Review target: Within 24 hours on business days after you submit

Talk to an engineer Get an official quote in 24 hours

No CAD yet? Our design team can take it from a sketch or a spec.

The configurator opens with this configuration preselected. An engineer reviews every order. Account required; engineering review is free and comes before payment.

Which sheet metal requirements have to be on the drawing?

Enclosures, chassis, panels, and brackets
Parts where a flat blank plus bends beats machining from solid
Assemblies needing pressed-in hardware or welded joints
Anything that has to be light, large, and inexpensive at once

Typical orders: Single prototypes through production batches. Quantity changes whether tooling is worth it, which review confirms.
Accepted files: STEP or STP geometry plus a dimensioned drawing before production. DXF is accepted on its own for flat-only parts. PDF drawings and reference images upload as supporting files.
Payment basis: Official price after free review
Not ready to configure?: How sheet metal fabrication works
Preparation workbook: Download the intake workbook

The choices that decide the part.

Each of these is a real configuration decision with a cost and a consequence, not a feature list. Where one of them constrains another, engineering review is the step that resolves it.

Cutting

The flat blank is cut first, and every hole, slot, and outline tolerance starts here. Supplying a flat pattern is optional — declare whether you have one, because a pattern built on the wrong bend allowance is worse than none.

Forming

Press-brake bending sets the part's real geometry. Bend count is a priced field because each bend is a setup, and bend-to-hole distances are the most common cause of a part that will not form.

Joining and hardware

Welding, countersinks, tapped holes, pressed-in hardware and inserts, hems, and louvers are declared per line. Estimated weld length is a priced field rather than a guess.

Finishing

As fabricated or deburred, anodized, powder coated, brushed, plated, or silkscreened, with standard, strict, or cosmetic appearance grade.

What the configurator accepts, and where review takes over.

Fabrication capabilities capability bounds
Parameter	Supported range
Product types	Flat cut part, bent part, welded part, or sheet-metal assembly. Welded and assembly types always route to review.
Materials in the configurator	Aluminum, mild steel, stainless steel, and copper/brass.
Sheet thickness	0.3–25 mm declared in 0.1 mm steps. Formability at the extremes is confirmed against the material in review.
Part envelope	1–3000 mm width and height, 0–3000 mm depth. Larger work is quoted through review.
Bends and welds	0–200 bends and 0–100,000 mm estimated weld length per part, declared in the configurator.
Features	Countersinks and counterbores, tapped holes, installed hardware and inserts, hems, louvers, and laser marking.
Tolerance	General, controlled, or critical dimensions. Critical always routes to review, because forming tolerance stacks differently from cutting tolerance.
Finish and inspection	As fabricated, anodize, powder coat, brushed, plating, or silkscreen; standard, dimensional, or first-article inspection.
Quantity	1–100,000 parts per line.

Every figure here is a configurator bound, not a promise about your part. What a given thickness of a given alloy will actually hold across a formed feature is confirmed in review against your drawing.

Boundaries

Bend radii, springback, and bend-relief geometry are material- and thickness-dependent; a flat pattern generated on the wrong assumption will not form correctly
Welded and assembled parts always route to engineering review before production
Cosmetic appearance grade on a welded assembly is a declared requirement with real added work

What drives the price of a fabricated sheet metal part?

Quotation by a specialist. Quotation within 24 hours on business days. A specialist prices your exact Sheet Metal scope from your files and specifications. You submit your request online, and the quotation arrives in your account and by email. Review is free. Nothing is charged until you accept a quotation.

Material, thickness, and blank area
Bend count, because each bend is a press-brake setup
Estimated weld length and whether the part is an assembly
Hardware, tapped holes, countersinks, hems, and louvers
Finish, appearance grade, tolerance class, inspection level, and quantity

What engineering reviews

Customer approvals may include

A corrected flat pattern where the supplied one would not form
Any material, thickness, or hardware substitution proposed in review
Any itemized price or lead-time revision

Bend radii and bend allowance against the actual material and thickness
Bend-to-hole and bend-to-edge distances that would distort features
Whether the supplied flat pattern matches the bend allowance we would use
Weld access, distortion, and the order of operations on an assembly
Hardware selection and whether the sheet is thick enough to hold it
Which dimensions are critical after forming rather than in the flat

Free review first. Keep every later decision explicit.

Sheet-metal parts are read as a 3D model plus a drawing together. Where the flat pattern and the folded model disagree, review resolves it in writing before anything is cut.

Create your account
Verify your email before the persistent quote workspace opens. Every file, estimate, message, and payment stays attached to that account.
Configure and upload
Provide service-specific inputs and place technical files in private project storage. Saved drafts remain available across sessions.
Free engineering review
Submit the configured cart at no charge. A reviewer checks the exact file and specification revision, then prices it or opens a documented question or correction request.
Official quote
Review publishes an itemized quote with lead time and a validity window. That is the binding figure; anything shown earlier was a preliminary estimate.
Accept and pay
Accepting opens payment rather than charging you. Lead time is counted from settled payment, and any later itemized revision needs your approval first.
Produce and deliver
After all commercial, technical, and customer gates are complete, the project moves through the service-specific production or design milestones.

Commitments the order system actually enforces.

Official quote prepared by a specialist, then formability review

A specialist prepares your official quote within 24 hours on business days, pricing the declared material, thickness, bends, welds, and features. Review then reads the geometry for formability and tolerance stack-up, and confirms or itemizes a revision before the official price.

Drawings stay private

Models, drawings, and revisions live in per-project storage reached through short-lived authenticated links, tied to your account rather than an email thread.

Review target

Sheet-metal projects are targeted for review one business day after you submit them. Review is free and precedes the official price.

Answers before you upload anything.

Do you need a flat pattern or a folded model?

The folded 3D model plus a drawing is the reliable pair. A flat pattern is welcome, but tell us whether it was generated with a specific bend allowance — if it assumed a different radius than the tooling we would use, we would rather rebuild it than form a part that comes out wrong.

Why do welded parts always go to review?

Because welding distorts, and how much depends on the sequence, the fixturing, and where the heat goes. That is an engineering judgment about your specific part, not something a calculator can price honestly.

How close can a hole be to a bend?

It depends on thickness, material, and bend radius, so we do not publish a single figure. Declare the tolerance class and review checks every bend-to-hole distance on your drawing and tells you which ones need to move.

Is the amount at checkout final?

The free engineering review comes first. Depending on the service you see a live supplier price, a published fixed price, or a price from a specialist within 24 hours on business days, and nothing is charged when you submit. After the review we publish an official quote with an itemized total, lead time and a validity window, and that is the amount you are asked to pay. Accepting the official quote opens payment rather than charging you. If a later correction changes scope or price, you see an itemized revision and can approve, question or decline it. We never silently charge an increase.

How are my drawings protected?

Your technical files are stored in private project storage and accessed through short-lived authenticated links. Files, prices, replacements and approvals stay tied to your account and keep their revision history.

Get an official quote for sheet metal, with the formability checked for free.

Upload the model and drawing, declare material, thickness, bends, and finish, and review reads bend allowance, hole distances, and tolerance stack-up before the official price.

Three lead-time tiers, each with its trade on the line: Economy lengthens the quoted target range and takes a discount line; Standard is the quoted target range at the quoted price; Express shortens it and adds an expedite line. You see the line before you commit, and every range is a target, not a promise.