Bend Radius For Steel Sheet

If a piece of material is bent too tightly problems can occur.

Bend radius for steel sheet.

You described a rough rule to find a steel s minimum bend radius. The material thickness will be measured in decimal form not by the gauge number. Minimum sheet metal flange bend length is required to avoid cracks in the bending area. It is most economical to use a single bend radius throughout the design but if necessary you can utilize multiple radii.

Let s say i have a 2 mm thick sheet and i want to bend it. Minimum recommended sheet metal bend length. Bend radius throughout the sheet metal design is kept constant to take the advantage of using the same tool during manufacturing. The bend allowance formula takes into account the geometries of bending and the properties of your metal to determine the bend allowance.

Use this document to choose values that are both manufacturable and meet your needs. Each and every bend in a piece of sheet metal has a certain minimum internal radius that needs to be taken into account when planning the design of a sheet metal form. To keep it simple i also use a 2 mm inside radius. Larger bend radii require about the same force for bottoming as they do for air bending however smaller radii require greater force up to five times as much than air bending.

Divide 50 by the material s reduction percentage as specified by the material supplier subtract by 1 and then multiply by the plate thickness. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. The tables below show bend radii and minimum bend sizes for materials and tooling combinations stocked by protocase. The bending radius must be at least 0 8 t to 2 t for sheet steel.

It is possible to choose other bends if you require but additional lead time and tooling charges may apply. The problem with bending too tightly. Minimum sheet metal bend length recommendations. You will need to know your material thickness mt the bend angle b the inside radius ir and the k factor k.

The minimum bend radius data shown in these charts is measured to the inside of the bend. We go beyond the general rules of sheet metal bending as our customers want tight bend radii for sheet metal parts. I can now see that the minimum flange length is 8 5 mm for such a bend so i have to keep it in mind when designing. Bend radii minimum bend sizes.

In a previous bending basics article you mention a material s tensile reduction percentage used for calculating the minimum inside bend radius of various metals. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one.