Bending Steel Sheet Metal

This page also includes a link to a on line sheet metal bend allowance calculator.

Bending steel sheet metal. The process delivers highly accurate forming maintenance of thickness and tremendous finished component strength. A cutout or the edge of your flange to your bend. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. As an example if you want to bend 24 gauge sheet metal at a 90 angle the calculation would be.

This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Stainless steel 1 20 ga. Determine your minimum bend by measuring the distance from your closest feature i e. Otherwise the sheet metal is almost certain to shift as you bend it resulting in a bad bend.

Stainless steel 1 14 ga. If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius. Hot metal forming offers tighter bend radii in high carbon steel in degrees that might break the material in cold forming. Sheet metal calculator bend allowance equations and calculator.

To clamp efficiently lay your sheet metal on the top surface of your straightedge with the drawn line perfectly aligned with the outside edge of the sheet metal. For most applications with stainless steel or aluminum you can get away with a zero radius bend on anything under 0 050 thick. 0 017453 x 90 x 0 020 0 33 x 0 024 0 0438558984 inch bend allowance keep in mind that some metals are more brittle than others. Clamping your sheet metal to the straightedge is a must.

The following illustration shows the equation calculation for determining the bend allowance when forming sheet metal. If you have any questions or want to discuss your design contact us. Most sheet metal materials will conform to the calculations. Bending a brittle metal beyond its limits could cause the metal to snap and break.

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. Choose a bend radius that matches your minimum bend. Mild steel 1 brake shear slip roll 1 metal forming 1.