Notching is a metal-cutting process used on sheet-metal or thin bar-stock, sometimes on angle sections or tube. A shearing or punching process is used in a press, so as to cut vertically down and perpendicular to the surface, working from the edge of a work-piece. Sometimes the goal is merely the notch itself, but usually this is a precursor to some other process: such as bending a corner in sheet or joining two tubes at a tee joint, notching one to fit closely to the other. Notching is a low-cost process, particularly for its low tooling costs with a small range of standard punches. The capital cost of the punch press can be expensive though, so small fabrication shops often out-source their notching work to a press shop or notching specialist. Notching of large or heavy sections, particularly for large tube fabrication or HVAC, is increasingly carried out by plasma-cutting rather than punch tools. The first punch & die type tool for notching tube & pipe was invented in Chicago by Julius Vogel, who was issued a US patent in 1938. The accuracy of punch notching is good, depending on the care with which it's carried out. For manual folding work, prior notching can often improve resultant accuracy of the folding itself. The speed of notching is usually limited by manual handling when loading the workpieces into the press. Pieces some feet long may be manually loaded into a single-stroke press. Smaller pieces are still generally hand-fed, limiting speeds to perhaps 100 strokes / minute. Almost any workable metal can be notched. It's particularly suitable where the metal is otherwise awkward to drill, such as stainless steels, titanium or previously heat-treated aluminium alloys. It is an operation of removing a small part of metal sheet of desired shape from edge of metal sheet Tube notching Tube notching is commonly performed before joining light-gauge tubes to make a tee or similar joint, as by welding. Either one or both tubes may be notched before assembly. A familiar example of tube notching is in the manufacture of bicycle frames. End notching works the end of the tube, such as a semicircular concavity to make the base of a tee, or a convex vee to fit into a mitre. Side notching (also called offset notching) works the side of a tube with a vee notch for bending, semicircular or vee notches for tee