Bending Aluminum Sheet With The Grain

Bending sheet metal can be useful if it s used to build different shapes and different products.

Bending aluminum sheet with the grain.

In this episode we are going to be looking at bending aluminum sheet metal for aircraft. You must pay careful attention to grain or rolling direction when bending high strength metals especially when trying to achieve a small inside bend radius. Which aluminum alloy bends the best is a a common question customers want the answer to. Grain direction bend line should go across the grain for the best bend having said that a typical sharp 90 bend on a piece of 1 8 aluminum sheet should be a minimum 1 8 inside radius use either 3003 or 5052 ideally the bend line should go across the grain.

Bending the sheet metal longitudinally with the grain allows those grains to separate at the grain boundaries. Against the grain if you bend with the grain it will split the grains ask login. Grain direction also plays into the amount of springback you can expect. To predict the material s behavior accurately during bending especially at the press brake you need to accommodate for the grain direction.

Minimum inside bend radius is also larger when bending with the grain longitudinal than across the grain transverse. A metal s grain direction is usually only a factor when bending however. This is because sharper or tighter bends can be made across the grain without cracking. In addition the grain direction needs to be considered when the bend radius is less than twice the thickness depending on the material and its hardness.

In particular we will take an in depth look at the theory making a. In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile. In this post we ll explain it to you. When bending high strength materials such as.

Local sheet metal shop not an aircraft shop experienced cracking on folding up a simple bracket. Has anybody heard of bending sheet stock 063 5052 h32 aluminum with grain direction on the diagonal. The harder and thicker the metal the greater the minimum bend radius. The grain direction is established during the metal rolling process.

Understand different metals have different minimum bend radius to thickness ratios.