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Metal Fabrication

Precision that holds up under pressure.

Linear guides, ballscrews, and linear motors for cutting, sawing, bending, forming, and assembly, reducing production times and enhancing equipment accuracy across the fab shop.

A robotic arm welds metal, producing sparks, while a person in safety gear operates a control device in the background.

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Backlash — linear motors eliminate it on contoured cuts

High-load

Guides and ballscrews built for bending and forming pressure

Non-contact

Linear motor internals — less wear, longer tool service life

Applications

In every process on the shop floor.

From the first cut to final assembly, HIWIN components guide the tools and workpieces that turn stock into finished parts.

  • CNC cutting & sawing

    Linear motors, guides, and ballscrews move cutting tools freely with exceptional speed and accuracy.

  • Bending & forming

    Guides and ballscrews deliver precision under the extreme pressure compressive forming demands.

  • Assembly & joining

    Welding, riveting, and joining equipment relies on quick, dependable linear motion.

  • Laser & plasma tables

    Zero-backlash linear motors interpolate contours smoothly at speed for clean-edged profiles.

  • Grinding & finishing

    Low-vibration motion significantly enhances the accuracy of small cutters and fine finishes.

  • Machine tending

    Welding robots and automated loading keep repetitive fabrication tasks moving without fatigue.

A robotic arm with a welding tool is working on a black metal box inside a glass-enclosed industrial setting, with red and white floors and blurred background equipment.

Why HIWIN

Fine motion control is the difference between part and scrap.

Metal fabrication bends, forms, saws, cuts, and assembles metal sheets, plates, and blanks into finished products, and every one of those processes lives or dies on motion control. CNC cutting demands accurate cuts within tight tolerances; bending demands reliable control under extreme pressure; automated assembly demands quick, dependable motion, shift after shift.

HIWIN motion technology serves each of them: linear guides and ballscrews that hold precision under the high loads of bending and forming, and linear motors whose stability eliminates backlash entirely, contouring and interpolating metal components with low vibration that measurably improves the accuracy of small cutters. Because linear motor components never contact each other, wear drops, tool service life extends, and operating costs fall.

Products

The components behind fast, accurate fabrication.

Browse all products →
  • A linear guide rail with a metal carriage block mounted on a steel track, used for precise linear motion in machinery. The block has green and red end caps and mounting holes.

    CNC machines · Press brakes

    Linear Guideways

    Guide tools and workpieces with the rigidity to hold tolerance under high cutting and forming loads.

    Browse linear guideways →
  • A silver ball screw with a flanged nut, shown on a white background. The mechanism features helical grooves on both the screw shaft and inside the nut.

    Cutting · Bending · Forming

    Ballscrews & Supports

    The proven drive for fabrication axes: precision under load, with rolled and ground options to match the tolerance budget.

    Browse ballscrews →
  • A rectangular linear motor with a silver top plate, black base, and orange cables attached at one end, shown on a plain white background.

    Contouring · High-speed axes

    Linear Motor Components

    Zero backlash, low vibration, and non-contact internals: faster traverse and finer interpolation than rotary-plus-ballscrew arrangements.

    Browse linear motors →
  • A white industrial robotic arm labeled HIWIN with multiple joints and a tool attachment at the end, mounted on a black base.

    Automated assembly

    Welding Robots

    Robust hardware with welding software compatible with the leading industrial brands, automation for the joining end of the fab shop.

    Browse welding robots →

Researching a design? Download catalogs and application notes →

Application Brief

What a cutting gantry gives up to backlash.

On a plasma or laser gantry, edge quality is decided on the contours. A rotary drive through a ballscrew has to reverse through its own backlash at every direction change, and the usual answer is software compensation: a correction applied on top of a mechanical error rather than a mechanism without one. Traverse speed between cuts is the other constraint, and it is bounded by what the drive can accelerate. HIWIN linear motors drive the axis directly, so there is no backlash to compensate and no screw to wear. Roller guideways carry the rigidity the cut needs, and ballscrews and supports remain the right answer on the pressing and forming machines elsewhere in the shop.

A person wearing a watch is working with a metal rod and threading a wire through a cylindrical metal component, using their hands on a wooden surface.

RG series

Roller guideways for rigidity under cutting load

15–65 mm

RG and HG rail widths for gantry and frame axes

LMC · LMFA · LMSA · LMT

Linear motor component families

FAQ

Metal Fabrication motion control, answered.

Still weighing a design decision? Ask an application engineer →

Why use linear motors instead of rotary motors and ballscrews in fabrication equipment?

Linear motors eliminate backlash, move faster than traditional rotary equipment, and let users control material flow by accelerating and decelerating as needed. Their component parts are not in contact, which significantly reduces wear over time, while the tried-and-true rotary-plus-ballscrew combination remains a dependable, economical choice for many axes.

Can HIWIN components handle the loads in bending and forming operations?

Yes. HIWIN linear guides and ballscrews provide ideal performance in bending and forming applications where precision under high loads is critical: the extreme pressure of compressive forming is exactly what they are specified for.

How do linear motors affect cut quality?

Linear motors operate with very little vibration, which significantly enhances the accuracy of small cutters. Machines with linear motors benefit from higher speeds, greater precision, and lower vibration than conventional motor arrangements, visible directly in edge quality.

Does HIWIN offer automation for assembly and welding?

Yes. Assembly equipment typically relies on linear guides, linear motors, and ballscrews for quick, dependable motion, and HIWIN welding robots add turnkey automation for repetitive joining tasks, with software compatible with the leading industrial welding brands.

Will linear motors reduce maintenance costs?

Generally yes. Linear motors require less maintenance than traditional motors and prolong tool service life by reducing wear: non-contact internals plus smoother, more efficient motion mean less friction, lower energy usage, and lower operating costs.

A persons hands install a metal bearing onto a long, cylindrical metal rod in a workshop or industrial setting. Shelves and equipment appear blurred in the background.

Metal Fabrication

Upgrading a fabrication axis? Talk it through with an application engineer.