What manufacturing process involves mechanically deforming metal to produce parts?

The correct answer, metal fabrication, encompasses a series of processes that involve mechanically deforming metal to create parts and assemblies. This category includes techniques such as bending, cutting, and shaping, which alter the physical form of the metal through various mechanical forces without changing its state.

In metal fabrication, techniques like welding and forging are also utilized, highlighting the broader scope of this manufacturing process. The focus on mechanical deformation makes metal fabrication distinct from processes like casting, which involves pouring molten metal into a mold to obtain desired shapes, thus changing the metal's state rather than deforming it.

Machining, while related to the alteration of metal, typically involves removing material through methods such as drilling or milling, which is a different approach than mechanical deformation. Welding, although it can join parts and might involve some deformation, is primarily a joining method rather than a deformation process in itself. Therefore, those options do not fully encompass the broad nature of mechanical deformation as it applies to the creation of parts.