Bending 1 4 Aluminum Sheet

We re having trouble bending 6061 t6 aluminum without cracking and i was wondering if you could give us a few pointers.

Bending 1 4 aluminum sheet.

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. With the aid of a straight edge and a sharp knife score both sides of the aluminium sheet. Bend allowance mild sheet steel 90 degree bend allowance bend allowance chart example flat size 2 2 095 3 905.

T stock thickness. Flip the sheet over and repeat. K bf 0 33 for edge bending. K bf 1 33 for v bending.

Aluminum melts between 865 and 1 240 degrees f so you obviously can t heat it as much as steel. 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. 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. Material bend radii and minimum bend size charts please note.

If you d like to know more about bending specific alloys or which alloy is best for your application please contact our sales department by. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. 6061 t6 aluminum is tempered and notorious for not bending easily. Ts tensile strength of sheet metal.

Use the minimum bend dimension values in the charts below for your minimum closeness of cutout to a bend. 0 060 crs 2 000 2 000 r0 031 aluminum 90 deg. If you bend anything harder than 5054 aluminum you will need to anneal it by heating along the bend line. From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition.

W part width in direction of bend axis.