Bending Curves In Sheet Metal

The inside bend radius should be equal to the thickness of the material that you re forming.

Bending curves in sheet metal.

This is putting a simple hem on a curved piece of zinc with a 7ft radius. In order to get a flat pattern out of it you might need to partially recreate a contour flange on the imported 3d. Then you delete the original flanges e g. Split body delete body etc and then you convert to sheet metal.

Finally bend the sheet up by hand to the angle desired. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. Clamp the box section on top of the shims feed the metal through and pull up then feed the metal through a few mm at a time gentle tweaks using the long side when you reach the middle turn it round and repeat. Next place the wood parallel and slightly behind the bending line.

I have bent 3mm sheet up to 300mm wide like this. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

So in modeling you first copy the edges you want for recreating the 2 flanges and the holes. Mark a bend line and place the sheet metal on the edge of your bench. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. For 3mm i use a big piece of angle iron.

If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius. Clamp the wood on top of the metal to the workbench. In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend. The average hack requires at least one angled metal part and the best tool to make one is still the good ol press brake.