Bending Aluminum Sheet Grain

Bending with the grain also limits how tight of an inside bend radius you can achieve without cracking the outside of the bend.

Bending aluminum sheet grain.

That said forming with the grain takes less pressure to make a bend. Pieces 22 long by 1 75 wide by 0 63 thick. The harder and thicker the plate is the greater the minimum bend radius. The trend is obvious.

The grain direction is established during the metal rolling process. If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius. When bending aluminum know that the smaller your inside bend radius the larger the chance that cracking will occur in the part. In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend.

Again the minimum inside bend radius is even larger when bending with the grain. Bend angles also can be less consistent. For 0 5 in thick 7050 aluminum the minimum bend radius may be specified as much as 9 5 times material thickness. Also know that for the best results and fewer cracks on the outside of the bend the bend line should go across or diagonal to the material grain when and where possible.

This could be either problematic or catastrophic depending on the application of the end product. Bending the sheet metal longitudinally with the grain allows those grains to separate at the grain boundaries. This is important to note especially with aerospace and aviation applications since bending with the grain or parallel to the grain direction can result in material failure. The bend is along the long dimension.

Bending 2024 t3 grain direction considered. General advice on aluminum. Inside bend radius 0 19. Bending with the grain may result in cracking or.

Bending with the grain gives a different result than bending against it. You must pay careful attention to grain or rolling direction when bending high strength metals especially when trying to achieve a small inside bend radius.