Rolled part to sheet metal issue

[GaborHun]

I try to convert to sheet metal something similar to the attached picture, but had no luck with it yet.
I have no idea about what method shall I use. I'd say something around "sketched bend" might do the trick, but playing with the parameters did not give any solution. I start to wonder if it is feasible at all or not.
Any help would be appreciated. I use SW 2007.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Be sure that the gap you show on the bottom is actually there.
Not just a discontinuity in the material, but an actual gap, with a minimum dimension somewhere above .001".


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[felix7502]

Draw your initial cylinder. From an edge plane construct a gap. Usually I try to make one of the gap sides parallel to the material and the other at an angle from the center point. The angle can be small, mine are .05°. When you convert to sheet metal, use the inside, parallel edge. Make your cuts and flanges after you convert.

 

[GaborHun]

I wasn't precise enough. Converting to sheet metal is OK, as making cuts works well too.
My problems come when I try to make flanges onto curved surfaces (the two ends of the rectangular cuts).

At first I tried to cut the contours of the flanges in the rolled state of the sheet. Than I wanted to use "sketched bend" to make the bends, but received rebuild errors for all variations with the parameters.

At second I made the cut, and tried "base flange-tab" to raise the flanges using a contour drawn upon the edges of the cut window, but the error message I got was: the sketch plane for base feature must coincide with the base body's top or bottom.

Attached pic shows both cases.

 

[GaborHun]

Thanks Mike, thanks Felix!

Finally I managed to solve it, but had to do it the brute force way. After creating the cylinder I made tiny sections of the cylinder flat (sections where I needed the flanges). These flat sections were OK to create base flange-tab features.
The final product model was not a perfect cylinder, but got pretty close to it.

Green lines highlight the borders of the flat sections in the attached picture.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Glad that it worked, but that's a very unsatisfying way to do it.
I was hoping that some real SW expert would check in and show us the 'best' way.

I have no SW to mess with now, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to pierce the hole and/or pull the flange in unrolled state.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA