There are significant differences between machining and sheet metal working in terms of the form of the material from which the process is started. Machining usually takes a solid block of metal as its raw material, and gradually removes the excess material by cutting, grinding, etc., to form the desired shape and size of the part. Sheet metal processing starts with a sheet or coil of metal and uses bending, folding and other deformation processes to plastically deform the material to obtain the desired product contour. This difference results in the two processes differing in terms of the processing equipment, the process flow, and the area of application of the final product.