Bending is an important process in sheet metal fabrication. Press brakes are a metal fabrication process that uses a press brake to bend flat sheet metal into its final shape. Force is applied between a punch (upper tool) and a die (lower tool), allowing linear bends to be made on a wide range of metal materials and thicknesses.
There are many reasons why you should consider bending as a key technique in your sheet metal manufacturing process.
*Improved Precision: The precision of the metal bending process is significantly improved due to the precise determination of the k-factor and bend allowance.
*Increased Productivity: The bending process requires fewer tools and can be automated. As a result, you can perform fast bending operations and achieve high production volumes.
*Fewer Secondary Operations: The bending process can be completed without secondary operations, such as welding that may be required for cutting.
*Low Tooling Cost: The bending process is completed with simple tools, resulting in lower overall costs.
*Reduced Part Use: Bending allows you to form a single part into the desired shape without using multiple parts in the assembly.
*Reduced Part Weight: The bending process allows you to obtain the required part stiffness and strength without adding weight to the part.
Let’s highlight some of the most common applications:
*Home Appliances: Many home appliances, such as washing machines and blenders, are constructed using metals such as stainless steel. For example, the drum of a washing machine is formed by bending the metal sheet into the desired shape.
*Automotive and Aircraft Industries: Side panels, fuselages, and other parts of cars and aircraft are formed using bending processes, which allow for design features such as streamlined shapes, which improves efficiency.
*Construction: The construction industry uses bent sheet metal in areas such as roofing, drilling and drilling, and safety railings. Corrugated iron used for roofing is bent as a design feature.
*Medical Industry: Equipment and machinery in the healthcare sector, such as MRI machines and even beds, are manufactured using metals, including bending.
*Manufacturing: You’ll find metal bending applications in the manufacturing industry, such as the manufacture of boilers, computer cases, and more. In order to form equipment with fewer stress points, bending processes are used instead of welding.
You can bend sheet metal of different gauges or thicknesses. Moreover, the bend process is suitable for almost all sheet metal.
1. Aluminum: Aluminum can easily combine with other elements to form alloys with various properties. Some of the most common alloys are:
Aluminum 5052: This alloy type has impressive ductility and will not crack except for reworking.
Aluminum 6061 : This aluminum alloy presents challenges when bending because it is prone to cracking. The metal becomes weaker when cold bent, while the plasticity increases after annealing.
2. Annealed Alloy Steel: Depending on the alloy, 4140 alloy has excellent ductility and is less likely to crack.
3. Brass: The zinc content in brass is crucial because the higher the zinc content, the less bendable the material is. It is useful when performing simple bending procedures and more complex processes that require heating.
4. Bronze: Bending bronze is not a simple task, and it is prone to cracking unless it is heat treated.
5. Copper: It has high ductility and is easy to bend.
6. Steel: This material comes in different variants, with hot rolled steel being more ductile than cold rolled steel. The main variants are:
Mild Steel: Mild steel comes in both hot and cold rolled forms and is more ductile. However, it needs to be coated to prevent corrosion in wet environments, such as by galvanizing.
Spring Steel: It is ductile after annealing and needs to be heated after work hardening to bend again.
Stainless Steel: It is a mild steel alloy with more than 10.5% chromium, which is very corrosion resistant.
7. Titanium: Titanium is very rigid, so you need to design a larger inner radius for the bend. Since springback is a problem, you need to overbend sheet metal parts of this material.
Sheet metal punching is a metal cutting/processing process in which a punch press uses tools called punches and dies to apply force to the material to create contours, holes, and other formed shapes.
Laser cutting is a manufacturing process where a laser beam penetrates a raw sheet to create flat geometric shapes. Available in a wide range of metals, it is ideal for manufacturing parts such as gaskets, brackets, brackets, and housings.