Good Aluminum Sheet For Bending

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.

Good aluminum sheet for bending.

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. This will give you a nice bend. Series 6xxx are the aluminum magnesium silicon alloys. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts.

It gives you design flexibility integrated functions good aesthetics and complex geometries you can also choose between different bending processes such as roller bending press bending draw bending and stretch bending. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. A bending brake will be best suited for shaping flat square sheets of light gauge aluminum.

The alloy 5052 h32 may bend well enough for my use and shows about 50 higher tensile and yield. This is a highly technical and potentially dangerous process best left to a professional metalworker. The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece.

With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition. The bending process for aluminium is useful and cost effective. As a general rule the machinability of any aluminum alloy is inversely proportional to its formability.

Sheet aluminium can be cut without the need for a guillotine or tin snips which tend to deform the metal. Heavy gauge aluminum bars or rods must be heat bent using an acetylene torch and vice. Series 5xxx are the aluminum magnesium alloys. 3003 definitely isn t fun for drilling or any other sort of operation involving edge cutting tools.

The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. That s the ideal anyway but the reality is that many parts arrive at the press brake in a less than ideal state. These heat treatable alloys exhibit great strength good corrosion resistance and ease of formability.

Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line.