Air Bending Of Sheet Metal

The tooling only touches the material at three points.

Air bending of sheet metal.

The gauge inside radius die opening and minimum flange length are all interconnected through different equations and relationships the air bend force. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. Refer to the chart for values for folder as well as various press brake tooling combinations. Geometry of tooling imposes a minimum bend dimension.

The punch tip and the die shoulders fig. The punch is then forced past the top of the die into the v opening without coming into contact with the bottom of the v. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts.

An air bend force chart or force chart breaks down a number of key components of sheet metal bending in an easy to reference format. For this reason the actual angle of the tooling is relatively unimportant. The diagram shows one such mechanism. The average hack requires at least one angled metal part and the best tool to make one is still the good ol press brake.

Being able to read a bend force chart is crucial for any brake press operator and sheet metal engineer. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation. With air bending fig. In this process the workpiece comes in contact with the outside edges of the die as well as the punch tip.

In air bending a bend angle is formed by driving the punch into the sheet metal to a specific position within the die opening. Air bending also known as free bending is the most common way for bending sheet metal because of its flexibility. 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. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.

Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal. Different bend angles can be obtained using the same set of tools. 3a even less contact is made with the metal than with bottom bending. Air bending is the most common type of 3 types of bending used in sheet metal shops today.