Bending Steel Plate

[lumpypumpkin]

I had a part that was origionaly casted, that we now need to make a modification upon the origional design. The general consensus was that we make it 3 seperate parts and weld together. Instead of milling it out...they want to use plate steel and bend it like sheet metal. Where can I find a table or equation that will give me a minimum bend radius for plate steel (specifically 1/2")? does it hold true to the same equations as sheet?

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Try this

http://www.engineersedge.com/calculators/bend_allowance_pop.htm

Not sure of the accuracy - just ran into it and remembered your post

 

[lumpypumpkin]

not exactly what I was looking for. I want to know...how small a bend radius can be without cracking or otherwise damaging the metal around the bend

 

[MikeHalloran]

For mild steel, R = 1 X T should be achievable without difficulty.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[dvd]

Before you get too involved in concerns about using a specific radius, talk to your fabricator and see what dies are available. The fabricator will tell you what they can do with their existing tooling and also make recommendations based on part geometry. Also, it is always a good idea to give the fabricator final part dimensions. They know how to layout the holes and make bend allowances, if you don't already do this don't start now. If you provide a blank layout and it doesn't form the way you intended you will be starting over.

 

[lumpypumpkin]

Well..a fabricator has not been decided upon yet. the whole thing is done in Solid Edge using the sheet metal tools, but it does not have set defaults for anything larger than 8 gage sheet. It is manually set right now, and if the minimum radius is changed...it will automatically adjust bend allowance and such. The shop will be provided flat pattern and final dimensions.

a 1/2" raduis is just too large for the part. I would prefer something like 1/4" -3/8". is this reasonable?

 

[btrueblood]

1/4"? Hmm. No, not without applying heat. But that's just my judgement call, I haven't done the plastic section analysis and looked up what the max. elongation for various steels is.

 

[Philrock]

It depends entirely on the material properties. You need something with a great deal of ductility. Soft steels are typically ductile. However, as a counterpoint to this, high-quality spring steel wire can bend around it's own diameter - i.e. the inside bend radius is 1/2 the wire diameter.

If you are going to be doing this on a regular basis, you will need to experiment with different alloys, strength levels, annealing, etc.