Bend Relief In Sheet Metal

Avoid large sheet metal parts with small bent flanges.

Bend relief in sheet metal.

Grain structure in the metal sheet is critical for avoiding cracks in sheet metal parts with lugs or tabs that are cut on. Type smreliefcreate in the command bar. Click the create relief tool button on the sheet metal ribbon tab. Design for manufacturability sheet metal guidelines bends for the ease of manufacturing multiple bends on the same plane should occur in the same direction.

Refer to the chart for values for folder as well as various press brake tooling combinations. Use the minimum bend dimension values in the charts below for your minimum closeness of cutout to a bend. Select an item see the note below. The gap between the bend and surrounding material allows us to shape the sheet in the press brake cleanly eliminating cracking and tearing.

To eliminate this a bend relief is added so the edge of the sheet metal is perpendicular to the bend. One benefit of a bend relief is that it makes the part easier to produce. If it is ok for the metal to rip the minimum bend relief is zero. A bend relief creates space between the bent and unbent surfaces so that the edge of the sheet metal is perpendicular to the bend itself.

Sheet metal bend relief modify a bend relief the small cut made where the bend end meets a free edge and by specifying a shape and either a depth and relief width scale or specific bend relief depth. First utilize minimal bend radius of internal bend radius equal to material thickness. In low carbon steel sheet metal the minimum radius of a bend should be one half the material thickness or 0 80 mm. Select a hard edge bend face flange face or 3d solid entire model.

Choose create relief in the sheet metal menu. Geometry of tooling imposes a minimum bend dimension. You should also incorporate the use of bend relief cuts with a thickness of at least the thickness of the material with strong preference for bend relief cuts of a thickness. Synchronous sheet metal is pretty cool even cooler than just normal synchronous modeling if you ll excuse that word.

Bend relief and collars near pierced areas strengthen sheet metal parts. For example if you make a partial flange as above using all the defaults the software makes relief cuts at the end of the bends as shown to the right. Enter relief size by bend radius ratio or force bend reliefs auto. In general a minimum bend relief is equal to the material thickness plus the inside bend radius.

Parent topic using sheet metal tools search corner reliefs and bend transitions in the solidworks knowledge base. You are also able to select to extend the bend relief in the opposite direction in the case of a flange for example illustrations below.