Bending is a delicate and demanding process most of the time and common fabricating processes require a degree of formability that make your choice of proper alloy critical.
Good aluminum sheet for bending.
Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.
In high purity forms aluminum is soft and ductile.
Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle.
The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.
From a bending perspective it s always best to bend these parts in an annealed state and then temper them to the correct condition.
Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one.
Commonly used equipment include box and pan brakes brake presses and other specialized machine presses typical products that are made like this are boxes such as electrical enclosures and rectangular ductwork.
The best aluminum alloys for bending come down to series 3xxx and series 5xxx and sometimes series 6xxx.
6061 t6 aluminum is tempered and notorious for not bending easily.
This is done through the application of force on a workpiece.
Which aluminum alloy bends the best is a a common question customers want the answer to.
The top 3 aluminum alloys for being are the 3003 which has medium strength and the best cold workability the 5052 which is the highest strength alloy of the more common non heat treatable grades and the 6061 which is one of the more.
In this post we ll explain it to you.