8 Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Sheet Metal Parts

1. Using Completed 3D Models of a Part with no Bends

This is probably the most basic issue we see. Sheet metal is flat and must be bent, formed, cut, lased, and sometimes cajoled into its final shape. It&#;s a very hands-on process. If you design your sheet metal part as a solid object, it&#;s important that you send us a CAD file that appears folded, but shows where bends should go. Related to this, because the raw materials are single sheets of metal, the entire part must have the same material thickness throughout. For example, if you create a part that uses 0.125 in. (3.175mm) thick aluminum, your entire part will need to be that same thickness.

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2. Placing Features too Close to Bend Lines

A quick way to create difficulties during manufacturing is to place holes, tabs, or other features too close to a bend. So, how close can you get? Just follow the 4T rule. Keep all features at least 4x material thickness away from bend lines. So, if your design tells us to use 0.050 in. (1.27mm) copper, give your feature at least 0.200 in. (5.08mm) of clearance. If you don&#;t, the part will deform awkwardly in the press brake, and no one wants that.

3. Designing Perfectly Perpendicular Sheet Metal Corners

When you bend sheet metal in a press brake, the resulting bend doesn&#;t form a perfect 90-degree angle. Instead, the tool has a rounded tip that adds a radius to the bend. If you measure the length of that bent area and divide it by two, you&#;ll get the bend radius, a figure that is defined by the tool that made it. If the size of that curve is important to you, make sure you specify it in your model.

The most common internal bend radius (and our default) is 0.030 in. (0.762mm). An important consideration to remember is that the external bend radius&#;the one formed on the die side of the press brake toolset&#;is equal to the material thickness plus the internal bend radius.

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Some designers like to get fancy and create different radii for each bend in a part. Want to save some money? Use the same radius for all of the bends. When your manufacturer doesn&#;t have to change tooling that saves you on labor costs.

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In sheet-metal fabrication, parts are formed from metal sheets by punching, cutting, stamping, and bending. 3D CAD files are created using a host of different CAD packages and then converted into machine code, which controls machines that precisely cut and form the sheets into the final parts. Sheet-metal parts are known for their durability, which makes them great for a wide variety of applications. Parts for low-volume prototypes and high-volume production runs are most cost-effective due to large initial setup and material costs.

Below are some tips and guidelines for designing sheet-metal parts. If you follow the design advice and maintain the tolerances expressed in this article, you are more likely to end up with parts that meet the needs of your designs.

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