Bending Aluminium Alloy Sheet

Make sure the bar is seated firmly inside the frame.

Bending aluminium alloy sheet. Bending these tempered alloys is not impossible but it is very difficult and will most likely require large bend radii to avoid cracking on the outside of the bend. For most applications with stainless steel or aluminum you can get away with a zero radius bend on anything under 0 050 thick. 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 versatile heat treatable alloys. When you release the handle the bent material will spring back to 90 not 85.

In this post we ll explain it to you. I used a angle of 5 degrees this is because when you bend the metal you usually want 90 degrees and when you hit 90 the metal will want to spring back a little. Insert your aluminum sheet into the brake beneath the removable clamp bar. Then place the clamp bar back down on top of the aluminum crosswise.

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. The idea of adding an angle 5 degrees past 90 is so that you can bend past 90 to allow for the spring back. In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile. 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.

In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend. The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx.