Good Aluminum Sheet For Bending

As a general rule the machinability of any aluminum alloy is inversely proportional to its formability.

Good aluminum sheet for bending.

6061 t6 aluminum is tempered and notorious for not bending easily. 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. 3003 definitely isn t fun for drilling or any other sort of operation involving edge cutting tools. The bending process for aluminium is useful and cost effective.

Place the fracture line over the edge of a table and bend the overhang slightly downwards. The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx. This is a highly technical and potentially dangerous process best left to a professional metalworker. That s the ideal anyway but the reality is that many parts arrive at the press brake in a less than ideal state.

They exhibit a very good combination of high strength resistance to corrosion formability and good weldability. This weakens the aluminium and creates a fracture line. Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts. Heavy gauge aluminum bars or rods must be heat bent using an acetylene torch and vice.

A bending brake will be best suited for shaping flat square sheets of light gauge aluminum. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. This will give you a nice bend. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. Miserable to bend cracking is very common and cold bending will always weaken the metal.

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. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. These heat treatable alloys exhibit great strength good corrosion resistance and ease of formability.

Series 5xxx are the aluminum magnesium alloys. Series 6xxx are the aluminum magnesium silicon alloys.