Industry Solutions · Office & Metal Furniture

Sheet Metal Machines for Office & Metal Furniture Manufacturing

Lockers, filing cabinets, desks and shelving — fast, repeatable equipment for high-volume furniture.

Step 1Cutting & Blanking
Step 2Bending & Forming
Step 3Welding & Finishing
Step 4Automation & Tooling

Metal Furniture Basics

How Office & Metal Furniture Are Made

Metal furniture is made mainly from 0.6–1.5 mm cold-rolled steel. Blanks are punched or laser cut with slots and perforations, corner-notched, bent into doors, drawers and shelves on panel benders and press brakes, while chair and desk frames are formed on tube benders; parts are then welded, cleaned and powder-coated.

Furniture is a volume business with thin sheet and many identical parts, so throughput per operator is the key metric — automatic panel bending, punching with forming tools and CNC tube bending deliver it.

Typical Parts & Materials

Locker & cabinet doorsHemmed edges, vents, lock cut-outsCold-rolled steel 0.6–1.0 mm
Drawers & filing cabinetsBox parts with four-sided flangesCold-rolled steel 0.6–1.0 mm
Desk & table framesBent profiles and tube framesSteel tube / sheet 1.2–2.0 mm
Shelving & racksSlotted uprights and shelvesCold-rolled / galvanized steel 0.8–2.0 mm
Chairs & seatingBent tubes and stamped bracketsSteel tube 1.0–2.0 mm

Manufacturing Process

From Flat Sheet to Finished Part

Select a stage to see what happens and which HARSLE machines do the work.

Step 1Office & Metal Furniture

Cutting & Blanking

CNC punching produces slots, perforations and vents; lasers cut complex parts; shears and notchers prepare blanks and corners.

Punching Machine

92 models in the HARSLE range.

Laser Cutting Machine

60 models in the HARSLE range.

Shearing Machine

43 models in the HARSLE range.

Notching Machine

15 models in the HARSLE range.

Recommended Machines

Machines for Office & Metal Furniture

Live from the HARSLE product range — models suited to metal furniture are listed first.

View all 92 Punching Machine models

Challenges & Solutions

What Matters in Metal Furniture

Thin sheet, high volume
Automatic bending and punching hold tolerances on 0.6–1.0 mm sheet at high stroke rates.
Safe, hemmed edges
Panel benders form hems and closed edges that remove sharp edges from doors and drawers.
Labor cost per part
Automation from punching to bending reduces handling between operations.
Consistent tube frames
CNC tube benders repeat angles so welded frames fit without rework.

Automate Bending

Panel Bender for Metal Furniture

A HARSLE panel bender clamps the sheet flat and forms all four sides in one cycle with universal tooling — ideal for the repeat panels, doors and boxes found in office & metal furniture.

Bending length 1400–3000 mm (AutoBend)
0–180° bending angle, 0.2 s per bend
Minimal operator skill, fast changeovers

Explore panel benders

Global Footprint

Shipments & Customer Stories

Every shipment and customer story HARSLE publishes appears here automatically. Filter by machine or country.

1,209Shipments published
118Destination countries
118Customer stories
LiveUpdated as we ship

All 1,209 shipments

Knowledge Center

Metal Furniture Guides

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about machines and processes for office & metal furniture.

Ask our engineers

What machines are needed for metal furniture manufacturing?

Punching machines or fiber lasers for blanks, notching machines, panel benders and press brakes for bending, tube benders for frames, plus welding and deburring before powder coating.

What thickness of steel is used for lockers and filing cabinets?

Lockers, cabinets and drawers are usually 0.6–1.0 mm cold-rolled steel; frames, shelves and rack parts range from 0.8 to 2.0 mm.

Is a panel bender worth it for furniture production?

For repeat doors, drawers and shelves with flanges on several sides, a panel bender typically replaces several press brake operators and produces more consistent parts.

How are chair and desk frames made?

Steel tubes are cut to length, bent on a CNC tube bending machine, end-formed or notched, and welded into frames.

Punching or laser cutting for furniture parts?

Punching is faster and cheaper per part for repeated holes, slots and louvers; laser cutting is more flexible for changing designs and complex contours.

More Applications