What can you learn about sheet metal craft？

Sheet metal, CNC, 3D printing, is the current market for equipment shell, structural parts, the most common three processing methods.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and sheet metal processing is relatively simple because of the characteristics of forming, high efficiency and low cost, and there are advantages in sample, small batch and mass production.

The common raw materials for sheet metal processing are iron, aluminum, stainless steel and other metal plates, and the main processing technology is laser cutting, bending, riveting, stamping, welding, spraying and other major processes.

Sheet metal raw materials are standard plates, mainly divided into the following three categories: iron, aluminum, stainless steel.Under the same area, iron plate is the cheapest, followed by aluminum plate, stainless steel is the most expensive.

Material property

1. Rust

Iron plate must rust, 201 May rust, 304 does not rust, aluminum plate does not rust.

The iron plate is definitely rusty, the general appearance of the parts are through the surface treatment process such as spraying, painting, etc., to solve such problems, but the surface treatment has increased some costs, the price may not be high, but it is particularly important in mass production.

In order to solve this problem, there is also a kind of iron plate called galvanized plate（Galvanized sheet is divided into two kinds of galvanized sheet with flowers and without flowers）, it is on the basis of the original plate, plated with zinc, or almost the same price, but to solve the problem of rust, but the galvanized layer of bumps and scratches will also rust.

In order to reduce costs, galvanized sheets are generally used in the internal structure of the equipment. Of course, it can also be used as an exterior part.

（In terms of material characteristics, stainless steel 201 is relatively much harder than 304, and 304 toughness will be greater）

2. Machinability

The two main processing processes of sheet metal: bending and welding. In terms of materials, the ductility and tensile strength of iron plates and stainless steel are relatively stable, and bending and welding can be done.

Here focuses on the aluminum this material, it has different series, common 5052, 6061, 7075.

7 series aluminum, also called aviation aluminum, the highest strength, high hardness, but the hardness is too high is not suitable for bending, a break.

6 series aluminum, strength, hardness in the medium distance, but also not suitable for bending, there is also a risk of breaking.

5 series aluminum, ductility and tensile strength are also stable, suitable for bending.

The choice of aluminum, in addition to whether it is suitable for bending, the difference is also the common surface treatment oxidation process of aluminum, and the color of different series of aluminum after oxidation will also have a little difference.

In addition, compared with iron and stainless steel, the thermal conductivity of aluminum is high, welding is difficult compared with iron and stainless steel, the general factory does not necessarily have the ability to weld aluminum parts, so the welding cost is high, which is also a large part of the reason for affecting the production cost.

Conclusion

1, iron plate is the cheapest, but easy to rust, generally with spray surface treatment process, do internal structural parts and appearance parts can be. Commonly used iron plate is mainly divided into cold rolled plate and galvanized plate two kinds, the difference is whether there is a galvanized layer, the price is similar.

2, aluminum plate material cost is good, can do anodizing, can bend only 5 series, 6 series, 7 series bending will split (there are other 1 series is not introduced), not easy to rust suitable for internal structural parts, welding costs are higher, do special-shaped parts cost will be higher.

3, stainless steel does not do surface spray treatment, can do wire drawing effect, can do structural parts, shaped parts, the only disadvantage is the high price.

Before explaining the process, let's first think about what problems are mainly solved by these processing processes in several major processing industries such as CNC, sheet metal, stamping, injection molding and now 3D printing?

Aside from the specific processing details from the overall point of view, in fact, they are solving the 3D molding problem of different raw materials.

It means that although it is a different processing process, using different raw materials, the purpose of these processing processes is the same - to make a structural part with length, width and height + other characteristics.

In order to introduce the sheet metal forming process more clearly and intuitively, as well as its efficiency and advantages, we will analyze the core process of sheet metal processing - sheet metal bending from the three angles of forming principle, bending principle and cost accounting.

In actual processing, a palm-sized 3D structural part can be formed in just ten seconds, and for slightly larger workpieces, in addition to taking and placing complex points, the molding time is only tens of seconds. Do not have to open a mold to make such a big thing, tens of seconds to form the processing technology can also have? Fast forming and low cost, which is the main advantage of sheet metal bending!

One more detail, the raw material is soft before bending, but after bending, it becomes strong! This detail is a very important concept in sheet metal structural design, sheet metal can be bent to increase strength!

For example, to make a part with a relatively large area, in order to prevent deformation, we can use this strategy to directly strengthen the thin plate by bending, which can both reduce the weight and reduce the cost of raw materials.

Summary of advantages

1, low cost of raw materials: can use very thin materials to achieve a large volume; The bending process can also be used to increase the strength of the plate to solve the deformation risk. It can also be rapidly formed from the plate to the three-dimensional part by bending (remember that a large volume can be mentioned here, referring to the advantages of the sheet class at this level).

2, the molding speed is fast, the molding cost is low, the molding speed does not depend on the size, does not need to open the mold, suitable for proofing and mass production.

Sheet metal processing principles

The bending principle is that through the extrusion of the upper and lower molds, bending workpieces of different Angle sizes can be folded, and the molds are mainly composed of the lower molds and the upper molds. In addition to a molding mold, the lower mold is generally a V-slot lower mold, and different bending molds are selected according to the thickness of the bending material.

The commonly used bending die is mainly divided into two kinds of straight knife and curved knife, the main difference between the straight knife and curved knife is to consider the bending interference avoidance problem.

In addition to some special shapes, in order to ensure accuracy and improve efficiency, some molding molds will also be prepared in advance, such as shutters (which can be processed by bending machines or by punching machines), and commonly used arc molds.

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