Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. Metal worked into a thin, flat sheet, used widely as construction material and raw material for a multitude of industrial products. '''Sheet metal''' is thicker than foil and thinner than plate.
WordNet
n. sheet of metal formed into a thin plate
Wikipedia
Sheet metal is metal formed by an industrial process into thin, flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed with sheet metal. Thicknesses can vary significantly; extremely thin thicknesses are considered foil or leaf, and pieces thicker than 6 mm (0.25 in) are considered plate.
Sheet metal is available in flat pieces or coiled strips. The coils are formed by running a continuous sheet of metal through a roll slitter.
The thickness of sheet metal is in the USA commonly specified by a traditional, non-linear measure known as its gauge. The larger the gauge number, the thinner the metal. Commonly used steel sheet metal ranges from 30 gauge to about 7 gauge. Gauge differs between ferrous (iron based) metals and nonferrous metals such as aluminum or copper; copper thickness, for example is measured in ounces (and represents the thickness of 1 ounce of copper rolled out to an area of 1 square foot). In the rest of the world the sheet metal thickness is given in millimeters.
There are many different metals that can be made into sheet metal, such as aluminum, brass, copper, steel, tin, nickel and titanium. For decorative uses, important sheet metals include silver, gold, and platinum (platinum sheet metal is also utilized as a catalyst.)
Sheet metal is used for car bodies, airplane wings, medical tables, roofs for buildings (architecture) and many other applications. Sheet metal of iron and other materials with high magnetic permeability, also known as laminated steel cores, has applications in transformers and electric machines. Historically, an important use of sheet metal was in plate armor worn by cavalry, and sheet metal continues to have many decorative uses, including in horse tack. Sheet metal workers are also known as "tin bashers" (or "tin knockers"), a name derived from the hammering of panel seams when installing tin roofs.
Usage examples of "sheet metal".
What appeared to be an armored Good Humor truck with two loudspeakers mounted on its cab, an armored windshield and a sheet metal gun turret rumbled slowly along the road from the north.
Damn, he was heavy, and about as unyielding as the sheet metal behind her.
Slovaks you provide, Dai and I investment make in canvas, sheet metal, Musikinstrumente, all necessary.
It had seemingly been cut in one-inch strips from half a mile of sheet metal.
With one exception, I wrote nothing during the time I was employed as a sheet metal worker.
The man had stepped inside and was standing behind the toilet, prying back a large piece of painted sheet metal that, Smithback now saw, covered a ragged hole in the dirty tile wall.
Like Rube, Esterhazy was wearing cotton army pants and shirt today, without insignia but as rigidly pressed as though they were made of khaki-painted sheet metal.
They had stout frames of metal, were floored with sheet metal, and roofed, sided and gated with heavy meshes of a chain-link-type metal, the links passed through, and clinched in, apertures in the frame.
He saw the VW's windshield explode and heard bullets punching through sheet metal and the tinkling of glass and then the VW's lights were gone and he could see nothing at all behind the dazzle of the pick-up's own lights.