Air Bending Of Sheet Metal

Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations.

Air bending of sheet metal.

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. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. The average hack requires at least one angled metal part and the best tool to make one is still the good ol press brake. The gauge inside radius die opening and minimum flange length are all interconnected through different equations and relationships the air bend force.

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. For this reason the actual angle of the tooling is relatively unimportant. 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.

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. The punch tip and the die shoulders fig. Refer to the chart for values for folder as well as various press brake tooling combinations. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece.

In air bending a bend angle is formed by driving the punch into the sheet metal to a specific position within the die opening. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal. In this process the workpiece comes in contact with the outside edges of the die as well as the punch tip. The diagram shows one such mechanism.

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. Different bend angles can be obtained using the same set of tools. With air bending fig. Air bending also known as free bending is the most common way for bending sheet metal because of its flexibility.

Air bending is the most common type of 3 types of bending used in sheet metal shops today. 3a even less contact is made with the metal than with bottom bending. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. Geometry of tooling imposes a minimum bend dimension.