Sheet Metal - is there away to roll or bend 360 degs 3

[lorenolepi]

Is there away to roll sheetmetal in NX?? We have a lot of parts that we will get as a flat sheet stock...then we roll it 360 degs and weld it to create a tube. I have tried (not that hard to be honest) to get the flat stock to bend 360 degs but with no luck. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[frankbe]

Use a Contour Flange; an open arc of e.g. 359.99°
Fill in a neutral factor of 0.5 and you have your rolled part.

2x NX8.0.1.5 Mach Design
1x Solid Edge ST2

 

[looslib]

NX sheetmetal is designed for press brake operations, not rolling.
Depending on the diameter of your rolled tubes, Either just create them as a cylindar (large dias) or use frankbe's method if you do have some stretching of the material as it is rolled. We used Frankbe's metehod on 1-1/4" thick plate rolled into 48" diameter tubes for road construction compaction equipment.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[jerry1423]

Here is a thread that may help you:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=290188

 

[lorenolepi]

Thanks for the info!
If we use the cylinder technique can you still get a flat pattern?

 

[JohnRBaker]

As I stated in that other thread, you will need to convert it to an actual Sheet Metal model at some point but there are tools included with NX Sheet Metal to do just that.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Thanks, I downloaded the prt from the other thread and I will investigate the file to see how it was done. Any chance NX will be adding a rolled feature into the sheet metal application?

 

[JohnRBaker]

It wouldn't be much more elegant than the Contour Flange feature, so...

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Maybe not as elegant but maybe more intuitive

 

[frankbe]

You could also make an expression for filling in the diameter of the cylinder you want.

known flat pattern size = PI x (inside diameter + sheet thickness)

Considering the neutral factor is 0.5 for rolled sheet metal parts.

THUS:
inside diameter = (known flat pattern size / PI) - sheet thickness

I don't think NX will consider a new function when one expression can do the trick. Put this in a template file if this a common job in your company and of you go ;-)

2x NX8.0.1.5 Mach Design
1x Solid Edge ST2

 

[lorenolepi]

thanks for the tip I will give it a try

 

[lorenolepi]

Any chance someone might have an example of using the contour flange technique? I got the other example of using the Extrude-convert to sheet metal technique and its simple enough but would like to compare the two.
Thanks

 

[JohnRBaker]

What version of NX are you running?

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

NX 7.5/8 (production/development)

 

[JohnRBaker]

Attached is an NX 7.5 example.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Thanks John!
I think my thought process was backwards. I was trying to go from the flat pattern and then roll/bend it... instead of having it rolled and then have it flatten out afterwards.

So with this technique the bend radius and the relief parameters are not applicable?

Is there any techniques to generate the roll from the flat solid?

Just as a background to what I'm trying to accomplish with all this...
My company manufacture parts. We create Operation sheets that go from the original material (casting, forging, sheet stock etc..) all the way to the very last operation. With an operation model at every step along the way. Our process is concrete for castings/forgings because we can wave-link/extract our model and start cutting away at it but I have not found a good way to take the sheet stock and wave-link it in to create a spun shape or even a simple cylinder..I was hoping the sheet metal app could do this for me.

Attached is an example of what I'm dealing with today (also where my other question about pattern curves in sketches came from the other day)...It's not truly a sheet metal part but it has a similar concept. The material comes as a sheet but it is already corrugated (up/down/up/down like cardboard). All we have to do is roll it and then chamfer the ends. So I would like to do is draw it as the corrugated sheet and then be able to roll it.
*Note* This would be the finished model (not our "Process Model" where all the operations/magic happens)

I tried the extrude--> convert to sheet metal technique as you described in the other thread but when I flattened it out, it flattened out completely (which I expected it to do) so that technique will not work on this one.

If you have any other suggestions on how to go about rolling sheets (whether it is sheet metal or ones like the attachment) and/or how to go from a sheet to a spun shape (not a perfect cylinder) by wave linking/extracting in the original stock please let me know...(is there a wrap body?) I would truly appreciate it!

 

[JohnRBaker]

To start with, your part is NOT what the NX Sheet Metal module was even created for. Granted, it might be made from 'sheet metal' but it's not the type of shape associated with what we call straight-break sheet metal which is more along the lines of what the NX software was designed for.

Now the fact that the software WAS able to convert your model to Sheet Metal and then flatten it says alot about the robustness and capabilities of the software, but that does not mean that this is the sort of thing it was designed to do. And if you're looking for a workflow where you would somehow start with a flat-blank and us the software to 'form' it into the 3D shape that you're working on here, that is WAY over-the-top!

I would say, you've done a good job so far. Now accept it for what it is and move-on.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lorenolepi]

Yeah I figured as much. I was truly hoping there was a wrap/roll solid feature within the modeling app but when I couldn't find anything I resorted to look within the sheet metal app.

Thanks for all the input people, even though I didn't find what I originally was looking for.. I will be able to apply some of the tips to other parts in the future.