Bending Aluminum Sheet With The Grain

Which aluminum alloy bends the best is a a common question customers want the answer to.

Bending aluminum sheet with the grain.

To predict the material s behavior accurately during bending especially at the press brake you need to accommodate for the grain direction. In particular we will take an in depth look at the theory making a. When bending high strength materials such as. 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.

You must pay careful attention to grain or rolling direction when bending high strength metals especially when trying to achieve a small inside bend radius. The grain direction is established during the metal rolling process. Understand different metals have different minimum bend radius to thickness ratios. In this post we ll explain it to you.

Minimum inside bend radius is also larger when bending with the grain longitudinal than across the grain transverse. Bending the sheet metal longitudinally with the grain allows those grains to separate at the grain boundaries. The harder and thicker the metal the greater the minimum bend radius. Bending with the grain gives a different result than bending against it.

In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile. Local sheet metal shop not an aircraft shop experienced cracking on folding up a simple bracket. Grain direction also plays into the amount of springback you can expect. A metal s grain direction is usually only a factor when bending however.

Has anybody heard of bending sheet stock 063 5052 h32 aluminum with grain direction on the diagonal. This is because sharper or tighter bends can be made across the grain without cracking. Bending sheet metal can be useful if it s used to build different shapes and different products. 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.

This will give you a nice bend.