Thickness To Easily Bend Aluminum Sheet Metal

We re having trouble bending 6061 t6 aluminum without cracking and i was wondering if you could give us a few pointers.

Thickness to easily bend aluminum sheet metal.

Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. Thus the smallest radius of any bend in a sheet should be at least equal to the thickness of the sheet. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. The table below shows the permitted bend radii for 90 o bending.

We are here to help. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts. Determine your minimum bend by measuring the distance from your closest feature i e. If you have any questions or want to discuss your design contact us.

From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition. Another factor to consider is that during the process of bending the metal hardens and strengthens by reason of the working effect. Apart from alloy selection thickness and bend radius are also critical factors that must be considered. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.

Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Choose a bend radius that matches your minimum bend. General information of aluminum sheet thickness.

We recommend a minimum bend radius of 1t for all sheet metal parts. A cutout or the edge of your flange to your bend. 6061 t6 aluminum is tempered and notorious for not bending easily. You can easily modify the material thickness inside radius and k factor for each thickness at the top of each column.

For example if the thickness of the sheet is 1 mm the minimum bend radius should be 1 mm. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal. The aluminum sheet metal thickness can be divided into four categories. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

Learn how to bend sheet metal so you can complete home and hobby projects easily without using a sheet metal brake.