Bending Aluminium Sheet

A bending brake will be best suited for shaping flat square sheets of light gauge aluminum.

Bending aluminium sheet. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards. 6061 t6 aluminum is tempered and notorious for not bending easily. Use the minimum bend dimension values in the charts below for your minimum closeness of cutout to a bend.

Bending is a manufacturing process that produces a v shape u shape or channel shape along a straight axis in ductile materials most commonly sheet metal. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition.

The bend radius you select may not be available if the geometry of the part will not allow us to bend with the specific tooling required to achieve that radius. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts. Commonly used equipment include box and pan brakes brake presses and other specialized machine presses typical products that are made like this are boxes such as electrical enclosures and rectangular ductwork.

Bending is a delicate and demanding process most of the time and common fabricating processes require a degree of formability that make your choice of proper alloy critical. Heavy gauge aluminum bars or rods must be heat bent using an acetylene torch and vice. Material bend radii and minimum bend size charts please note. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations.

This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal. In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile.

Which aluminum alloy bends the best is a a common question customers want the answer to. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. This is a highly technical and potentially dangerous process best left to a professional metalworker.