Air Bending Sheet Metal

The profile of the punch defines the bend radius while the stroke depth defines the bend angle.

Air bending sheet metal.

Typical products that are made like this are boxes such as electrical enclosures and rectangular ductwork. The tooling only touches the material at three points. Air bending also known as free bending is the most common way for bending sheet metal because of its flexibility. A cutout or the edge of your flange to your bend.

In this process the workpiece comes in contact with the outside edges of the die as well as the punch tip. 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. The sheet thickness and the behavior of the material determine the angle that can be achieved by the position of the punch. Different bend angles can be obtained using the same set of tools.

Determine your minimum bend by measuring the distance from your closest feature i e. For air forming we ve had three accepted types. Choose a bend radius that matches your minimum bend. Commonly used equipment include box and pan brakes brake presses and other specialized machine presses.

With air bending fig. 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. Even on malleable materials you can end up cracking the metal at the bend or weakening it to the point where it ll break with minimal force. The solution is to have a radius on the tool that you ll be using to bend the metal.

If you bend to a sharp inside corner with sheet metal you ll be adding a ton of internal stresses. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Air bending is the most common type of 3 types of bending used in sheet metal shops today.

The minimum radius and profound. Being able to read a bend force chart is crucial for any brake press operator and sheet metal engineer. The five orders of bend radius there are five orders of the inside bend radius ir. In air bending a bend angle is formed by driving the punch into the sheet metal to a specific position within the die opening.

If you have any questions or want to discuss your design contact us. Air bending uses a punch tool and an often v shaped bottom die. The punch tip and the die shoulders fig. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.

Since the stroke depth is adjustable. Still to reflect all the research that has gone into sheet metal bending in recent decades it may be high time to use more precise terminology.