Bending Aluminium Alloy Sheet

In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile.

Bending aluminium alloy sheet.

In this post we ll explain it to you. For most applications with stainless steel or aluminum you can get away with a zero radius bend on anything under 0 050 thick. Lift the clamp bar away from the rear of the brake frame and slide the sheet in perpendicularly to the direction you want to bend it. Make sure the bar is seated firmly inside the frame.

If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius. Insert your aluminum sheet into the brake beneath the removable clamp bar. In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend. I used a angle of 5 degrees this is because when you bend the metal you usually want 90 degrees and when you hit 90 the metal will want to spring back a little.

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. The aluminum series ability to bend tends to decrease as you move down the list of tempers from annealed to t4 and t6. The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx. Bending these tempered alloys is not impossible but it is very difficult and will most likely require large bend radii to avoid cracking on the outside of the bend.

Then place the clamp bar back down on top of the aluminum crosswise. 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.