Sheet metal fabrication
What are the sheet metal gauge and thickness equivalents?
Answer
Sheet Metal Gauge Chart - Gauge to mm and inch Gauge to mm and inch chart for steel, galvanised, stainless and aluminium sheet, and which thicknesses can be stamped, drawn or bent. A gauge number is not a thickness. It is a position on a table, and there are four tables in common use - US Standard Gauge for steel, a separate table for galvanised sheet, a third for stainless steel and a fourth (Brown & Sharpe) for aluminium. The same gauge number means a different wall on each of them, which is why a drawing that specifies "18 gauge" and nothing else is ambiguous.
Sources
- Sheet Metal Gauge Chart - Gauge to mm and inchSheet Metal Gauge Chart - Gauge to mm and inch Gauge to mm and inch chart for steel, galvanised, stainless and aluminium sheet, and which thicknesses can be stamped, drawn or bent. A gauge number is not a thickness. It is a position on a table, and there are four tables in common use - US Standard G...
- Sheet Metal Gauge Chart - Gauge to mm and inchHome › Blog › Sheet Metal Processing Engineering Data · Sheet Metal Sheet Metal Gauge Chart - Gauge to mm and inch Published September 30, 2026 · Balford Technical Team A gauge number is not a thickness. It is a position on a table, and there are four tables in common use - US Stand...
- Metal Stamping Materials: Stainless, Carbon Steel, CopperGrade and property guides The engineering detail behind each family: grade ladders, chemistry, mechanical properties, magnetism, corrosion behaviour and heat treatment. Deep-drawing steel grades (DC01–DC06) Aluminium grades for deep drawing Stainless steel in the deep-drawing guide Stress–strain com...
- Density of Aluminum, Copper and Steel: 2.70, 8.96 and 7.85 g/cm3Weight equals volume multiplied by density, and for a stamped or drawn part the volume comes from the blank, not from the finished geometry: sheet thickness multiplied by the developed area, less the scrap that is trimmed away. That is why material utilisation and weight are the same conversation. F...
- Sheet Metal Stamping Tolerances & ±0.01 mm LimitsCan tighter tolerances be achieved with a secondary operation? Often yes. A pierced or drawn feature can be brought into tolerance afterwards by coining/calibration in the die, or by CNC turning, milling or grinding where the geometry allows. The trade-off is cost per part, and the review will show ...
- How to Prevent Wrinkling in Deep Drawing | BalfordWrinkle resistance scales strongly with thickness: a thicker sheet has a much higher buckling stress in the flange, which is why thin parts wrinkle long before thick ones under the same holder force. Thickness tolerances matter — a coil at the low end of its tolerance band behaves like a diffe...
What an engineer still needs from you
- material and material condition (grade, temper)
- material thickness, plus the key diameter, height and wall thickness
- tolerances, burr direction and the visual acceptance standard
- annual volume - it decides whether tooling is single-hit, progressive or transfer
- surface finish, and any secondary machining, annealing or plating
Need a DFM feasibility assessment for your project?
Send the engineering drawing (STEP or PDF) with the material grade, thickness and annual volume. Balford engineers then check it against the process window - draw ratio, wall thickness, tolerances, blank and tooling route - and come back with what is feasible and what is not. An answer on this page cannot replace that review.
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This page is an engineering answer, not a quotation and not a dimensional acceptance. It is generated from Balford's published material and held to the verified company fact sheet.