Bending plastic

[mss53228]

We make a plastic part that we bend by first machining a V-groove in it with a 90 degree included end mill, then heat the plastic and bend the edges of the V-groove together.

Does anyone know of a simple method to design this with the sheet metal part of Inventor so that you can get a flat layout?

I have come up with a work around to get the results I want, but was wondering if there was a simpler way to do it that I'm not seeing.

I see this topic has been discussed before (thread790-154340), but it doesn't appear that any solution has been given.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

 

[xgrigorix]

I used to design line bent plastic sheet components all the time using Inventor's sheet metal module. However the thickest we ever did was 6mm, and we never machined v grooves in the parts. So, in short I don't have an answer for you, but I'll be interested to hear from someone else.

 

[SupaFlyer]

What kind of plastic youre going to use? There is many variations to bend different plastic materials. You can use bending machine to bend somekind plastics, acryle etc.. If you heat it there is danger to spoil surface..

 

[SupaFlyer]

Are u tried to hem it to sheetmetal side?