Good Aluminum Sheet For Bending

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

Good aluminum sheet for bending. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts. Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards.

Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. In this post we ll explain it to you. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition.

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. Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx. In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile.

This will give you a nice bend. 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. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle.

Bending is a delicate and demanding process most of the time and common fabricating processes require a degree of formability that make your choice of proper alloy critical. 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. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet.

The top 3 aluminum alloys for being are the 3003 which has medium strength and the best cold workability the 5052 which is the highest strength alloy of the more common non heat treatable grades and the 6061 which is one of the more. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line.