Bending 3 16 Aluminum Sheet

Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards.

Bending 3 16 aluminum sheet. To bend sheet metal in a vice start by marking a line on the metal where you want to bend it. How wide you wish to form becomes the deciding issue. Say you re bending 0 25 in thick 6061 t6 aluminum to a 100 degree external angle 80 degree internal angle. I have a piece of 8 5 wide 3 16 thick 5052 aluminium that needs several bends.

This is 3 16 thick plate that has been formed into a custom channel by being bent in two places to 90 degrees. After a few wiggles the sheet will fracture along the cut line leaving a clean break as shown in the above photos. If your sheet metal is long ask a friend to stabilize the part hanging out from the form blocks so it doesn t affect the bend. Make sure the bar is seated firmly inside the frame.

The bend radius you select may not be available if the geometry of the part will not allow us to bend with the specific tooling required to achieve that radius. Insert your aluminum sheet into the brake beneath the removable clamp bar. You have now annealed your 6061 t whatever into t 0 and it should bend without cracking. Next put your wooden or metal form blocks in the vice and clamp your sheet of metal between the forms.

To make this easier you d start with your 6061 material in the soft t 0 state. We also do plate rolling up to 1 0 thick and 10 feet in width. Material bend radii and minimum bend size charts please note. Lift the clamp bar away from the rear of the brake frame and slide the sheet in perpendicularly to the direction you want to bend it.

But it s also likely the points could contact the metal between. If those points contact the material at the diamonds apex the metal thickness is 3 16 in. The aluminum is now as soft and bendable as it can be. You can make something from some properly formed tool steel male and female dies and a hyd press.

The largest angle is only 40 degrees. Step 1 use just act. Use the minimum bend dimension values in the charts below for your minimum closeness of cutout to a bend. I think you ll want something on the order of a pressbrake if you plan to do much of it.

Die opening with a relieved profile. Bending 3 16 steel plate. Then place the clamp bar back down on top of the aluminum crosswise. With care and patience full size sheets of aluminium can be cut using this method.

During air bending the workpiece contacts the v die at two points at the lead in radii. Part gets bent from 180 degrees to 140 degrees i just tried this on a small sheet metal type brake but it was trying to pry open the brake. As measured from the flat portion between the diamonds to the bottom side of the sheet. Step 3 heat part until black soot goes away.

Material thickness as measured from the top of the diamond to the bottom of the material but only 1 8 in. Consider a material and brake set up for 3 16 in. Let s consider a challenging job. Our shop has the ability to do plate bending up to 10 feet in width and 3 8 plate bending up to 18 feet in width using our 500 ton press brake.