of

opera+ons that involve cu3ng, bending and drawing

Sheet Metal Working: Series
sheet metal. Sheet metal (from 0.4mm or 1/64in to 6mm or
1/4in thickness); Plate (from 6mm upwards).
Opera+ons are usually performed as cold working.
Advantages of Sheet Metal:
Thickness= 0.4 to 6 mm (1/64 to 1/4 in) Rela+vely low cost.
Good dimensional accuracy and good surface nish.
High strength
Basic Types of Sheet Metal Opera<ons
Cu3ng: It involves processes such as punching, shearing and blanking.
Bending: Deform the sheet around a straight axis.
Drawing: Deform the sheet into convex or concave shapes.

Mechanical Proper<es of Sheet Material

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When subjected to a tensile force there are three
deforma+ons to be measured: the longitudinal strain, the
strain in the width direc+on and the strain in the thickness
direc+on. The material is anisotropic.

nance.pipex.com

Shearing:
Shearing of sheet metal between two cu3ng
edges:
(1) just before the punch contacts work
(2) punch begins to push into work, causing plas+c
deforma+on;
(3) punch compresses and penetrates into work
causing a smooth cut surface;
(4) fracture is ini+ated at the opposing cu3ng
edges which separates the sheet.
Forces in a Shearing Opera<on
L = Total length Sheared
t = thickness

Force = 0.7 UTS t L

Shearing: A cu3ng metal opera+on usually
along a straight line, between two cu3ng edges.

Punching and Blanking

Punching and blanking are very similar. In

punching the cut piece is scrap, while in
blanking the cut piece is the desired product.

Conven+onally sheared surface showing the dis+nct regions of

deforma+on and fracture and (boYom) magnied view of the
sheared edge. (Courtesy of Feintool Equipment Corp.,
Cincinna7, OH.)

Percent Penetra<ons
Material
% Penetra<on
Silicon Steel
30
Aluminum
60
.10 C Steel Annealed
50
.10 C Steel Cold Rolled
38
.20 C Steel Annealed
40
.20 C Steel Cold Rolled
28
.30 C Steel Annealed
33
.30 C Cold Rolled
22

Penetra+on=Roll over + Burnish

Characteris<cs of a Die Cut edge
Roll Over Flow of material around the punch and die .The larger
the clearance the greater the roll over
Burnish The rubbed or cut por+on of the edge. The sharper
the punch the wider the burnish
Fracture The angled surface where the material separates from
the parent material
Burr The very sharp projec+on caused by a dull cu3ng on the
punch or die.

E.V. crane, Plas+c Working in Presses, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1948, p. 36

Fineblanked surface of the same component as shown. (Courtesy of Feintool Equipment Corp., Cincinnati, OH.)

Clearance: It is dened as the distance between the

punch cu3ng edge and the die cu3ng edge. It
depends on the hardness and thickness of the
material. As the thickness increases, the clearance
must increase.
The clearance typical values ranges from 4% to 8% of
the thickness of the material.
The recommended clearance is calculated by: c=a.t
where c=clearance, t=thickness and a=allowance
Die size determines blank size Db; punch
size determines hole size Dh.; c = clearance

Metal group






aluminum alloys (1100, 5052)



aluminum alloys (2024 and 6061); brass,

so? cold rolled steel, so? stainless steel

cold rolled steel, stainless steel, (hard & half-hard)

For a round blank of diameter Db is determined as:

Blank punch diameter = Db - 2c
Blank die diameter = Db
For a round hole (piercing) of diameter Dh is determined as:
Hole punch diameter = Dh
Hole die diameter = Db + 2c
Angular Clearance: Allows
Forces in a Punching Opera<on
the blank or the slug to drop
L = Total length Sheared
o easily. Typical values
t = thickness
ranges from 0.25degrees to
1.5 degrees
Force = 0.7 UTS t L

a _
0.045
0.060
0.075

Forming Proper<es of Sheet Metal

Sheet metal, due to its manufacturing process is
not an isotropic material. Anisotropy is caused by
the thermal processing of the sheet. Two types,
namely crystallographic anisotropy and mechanical
bering.
Example: Low carbon steel exhibits an upper
and lower yield strength. As a result during
deforma+on, it shows stretch strain bands
(Lueders bands). These can be eliminated by a
reduc+on of thickness of 0.5 to 1.5% by cold
rolling.

Typical Range of Average Normal Anisotropy

(Ravg) for various Sheet Metals

Zinc
0.2

Hot rolled steel
0.8-1.0

Cold rolled rimmed steel
1.0-1.35

Cold rimmed aluminumkilled
steel 1.35-1.8


Aluminum
0.6-0.8

Copper and Brass
0.8-1.0

Titanium
4-6

Example

Es+mate the force required for punching a 25mm diameter hole through a
3.2mm thick annealed +tanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V sheet at room temperature. Data:
UTS = 1000MPa

F = 0.7 UTS t L = 0.7 1000MPa 0.0032m 0.025 = 176kN

Cutlery manufacturing:

Cutlery manufacture involves blanking the stainless

steel or sterling silver to the proper shape. A series of
rolling opera+ons then gives the piece the correct
thickness. Aper heat treatment and trimming, the
piece has a paYern embossed on it in a stamping
opera+on. Finally, the piece is bued and polished.

Blanking: The metal inside a closed contour is

the desired part

Punching: The metal inside the contour is

discarded.
Notching: Edges or corners of a material is punched.

Trimming: Cu3ng
scrap or excess
material for a fully
or par+ally shaped
part
Shaving: Finishing opera+on of a previously cut
edge by removing a minimum amount of
material.

Progressive Stamping Dies

Common method to handle complex parts

Deep Drawing
Blanking
Deep Drawing
Re-drawing
Ironing
Doming
Necking
Seaming

Complex 3D shapes can be made out of sheet metal.

Usually a cold working process.

A punch forces a at sheet metal into a deep die cavity.
The die cavity is usually circular or rectangular.
When the depth of the product is greater than its diameter, it is
known as Deep Drawing and when the depth of the product is
less than is diameter, it is known as Shallow Drawing.
The sheet metal is supported on both sides by the blankholder,
to avoid wrinkling
If the Hold-down pressure (blankholder force) is too high the
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sheet will tear and if it is too low it will wrink.

Draw beads may be used to control metal

ow.

Es<ma<on of the Blank Diameter

2 2
Do = d1 + d1h Do = d12 + 4d1h
4
4

Formability Test:
Deforma+on in sheet materials are carried
out by either stretching and/or drawing.
The ability of the sheet to withstand large
degrees of streching or drawing
deforma+on (shape change) without failure
is known as formability.
Erichsen Test Cupping Test
A round punch is forced into a clamped sheet
un+l a crack (sudden drop in force) appears.

Forming Limit Diagram (FLD)

A FLD shows what combina+ons of the major and

minor strains produce failure in a sheet metal.
To develop the FLD, the major and minor
engineering strains are obtained.
The curves represent the limits of drawing
between failure and safe regions,

By measuring the ellipses on the deformed

paYern, the largest and shortest direc+ons
of the ellipses are the major strains and
minor strain respec+vely. Please note that
the axes for these strains are 900 apart.
This can be carried out at many dierent
loca<ons in the work-piece.
If both major and minor strains are
posi<ve, the deforma+on are stretching,
and the sheet metal will decrease in
thickness.
If the minor strain is nega<ve, this
contrac<on may par+ally or whole
compensate any posi<ve stretching in the
major direc<on. The combina<on of
tension and compression is known as
drawing, and the thickness may decrease,
increase, or stay the same, depending on
rela+ve magnitude of the two strains.

Example:
A grid of 2.5mm circles is electroetched on
a blank of AK sheet steel. Aper forming
into a complex shape the circle in the
region of cri+cal strain is distorted into an
ellipse with major diameter of 4.5mm and
minor diameter of 2.0mm. Is the
component close to failure??

4.5 2.5
Major strain
1 =
100 = 80%

2.5

2.0 2.5
Minor strain 2 =
100 = 20%
2.5


The coordinates indicate that the part is in imminent danger.

Limit Drawing Ra<o

It is dened as the ra+o between the largest diameter of
the blank that can be drawn into a specic punch diameter
without failure:
The recommended drawing ra+os are the following:
for the rst drawing: ~2
for the second drawing: 1.2 1.25
for the third drawing: 1.15 -1.18
for further drawings: 1.1 -1.12
Reduc<on:
The value of the reduc+on (r) should be less than 0.5 for
a cylinder.
Thickness to Diameter ra<o
The thickness of the star+ng blank divided by the
blank diameter. The recommended values for this
ra+o are greater than 1%. As the ra+o decreases, the
tendency for wrinkling increases.

Maximum Dblank
LDR =
Dpunch
DR =

Dblank
Dpunch

Dblank Dpunch
reduction = r =
Dblank
thickness diameter ratio =

t blank
D blank

The star+ng diameter of the blank must be of the right size for the nal dimensions of the cup
to be correct. Assume constant volume and neglect any thinning during the process.

Example:

Determine if the following is feasible for manufacturing: A cylindrical cup with an

inside diameter of 3.0in and height of 2.0in. Its star+ng blank size id 5.5in and its
thickness 3/32in.

Dblank 5.5
DR =
=
= 1.833 < 2
Dpunch 3.0

Dblank Dpunch 5.5 3.0

r=
=
= 0.4545 < 0.5
Dblank
5.5
t blank
D blank

3 )
(
= 32 = 0.017 > 0.01
5.5

The drawing opera+on is feasible.

Anisotropy Ra<o
There are two dierent types of anisotropy ra+o,
namely, normal and planar anisotropy ra+o.
Normal Anisotropy Ra<o (R) : Measured in a
tensile specimen, it is the ra+o between the true
strain in the width direc+on and the true strain in
the thickness direc+on.
The tensile specimen must conform specic
technical standards. The longitudinal direc+on of
the tensile specimen can be parallel or to a certain
angle with respect to the rolling direc+on of the
sheet.

width
R=
thickness

R0 + 2R45 + R90
Raverage =
4

Planar Anisotropy Ra<o: It determines the varia+on of the

true strain in the plane of the sheet (rolling plane).

R = R45

R0 + R90
2

The value of the normal anisotropy ra+o determines the limi+ng drawing ra+o and the value
of the planar anisotropy ra+o correlates with the material propensity to earing.
High values of normal anisotropy combined with low values of planar anisotropy provides
op+mal drawability.
The maximum value of the normal anisotropy also depends on the grain size of the material.

Note: If R=0, no ears form. The

height of ears increases as R
increases.

LDR =

Maximum blank diameter Db

=
Punch diameter
Dp

The rela+onship between average normal

anisotropy and the limi+ng drawing ra+o
for various sheet metals. Source: Aper M.
Atkinson.

Example:
A special deep-drawing steel showed a 30% longitudinal elonga+on and 16% decrease in
thickness when it is subjected to a tensile test. Es+mate the limi+ng drawing ra+o (LDR) for
this steel.

l lo
l
= 0.3 = 1.3 ln (1.3) = 0.26236
lo
lo
w wo
w
= 0.16
= 0.84 ln ( 0.84) = 0.1743
wo
wo
ln ( 1
(
(
)
w)
w)
0.84
R=
=
=
= 1.98
ln ( 0.84 1.3)
ln ( h ) ln ( wl
h
wl )
ln wo

ln wo

o o

From the graph the LDR~2.7

Drawing Force

(! D $
+
Fmax = Dpt (UTS )*## b && 0.7*)" Dp %
-,
Wrinkling can be reduced if a blankholder is loaded
by maximum punch force
The force increases with increasing blank diameter,
thickness, strength and the ra+o

Bending

Some sheet are bend along certain lines to produce a desired shape.
Bending introduces plas+c deforma+on to the part and it should remain in the desired shape
(angle) aper the load is released. Spring-back is the part of deforma+on (the elas+c part)
that recovers in the plas+cally deformed material once the load has been released.

Original shape

Desired deformed shape

Springback

When the load is released there is

a decrease in the bending angle
(Springback) due to the elas+c
recovery of the material.

Bend allowance: The amount of deforma+on of the

neutral axis of the sheet depends on the bend radius
and bend angle. The nal dimension of the neutral
axis (in the bending area) is used to calculate the
blank length for the bend part. R is the bend radius,

is the bend angle , t is the thickness and k is a

constant.
In an ideal case, the neutral axis remains at the center
of the sec+on k=0.5. In prac+ce, k ranges from 0.33
(for R<2t) to 0.5 (for R>2t).

Lb = ( R + kt ) = o ( Ro + kt ) = f ( R f + kt )

As the part is bended, the longitudinal dimension of the at length is increased. The bend
allowance is the amount of material that need to be added to the ange dimensions (leg parts)
in other to develop a at paYern. Example: suppose that anges lengths of 2 and 3 with an
inside radius of 0.250 at 90degrees are required.
Then the at dimensions are (2-(0.25+0.125)) and (3-(0.25+0.125)), i.e 1.625 and 2.625
respec+vely.
The length of the at sheet (bend allowance) is 1.625 + 2.625 + 0.457 = 4.707
Bend deduc<on: It is the amount of material that has to be removed from the sum of the
anges to obtain a at paYern.

! 90 $
Lb = ( R + kt ) = #
& ( 0.250 + 0.33 0.125) = 0.457
" 180 %

Springback
Aper releasing the pressure of the forming tool, the deformed work-
piece experience a dimensional change (strain) due to the elas+c
recovery of the material.
Sprinback is found in all forming opera+ons, but is is
more pronounced in bending. As the yield strength of
the material increases or as the Modulus of elas+city
decreases the springback deforma+on increases.
Overbending, i.e. bending to a smaller
radius of curvature than the required can
compensate for the springback of the
Original shape Desired deformed shape Springback material.
For aluminum alloys and austeni+c steels the
springback can be approximated by the equa+on
3
! Ro yield $
Ro yield
where Ro is the radius of curvature before
Ro
= 4#
+1 releasing the load and Rf is the radius of
& 3
Rf
Et
" Et %
curvature aper releasing the load; t is the
thickness, E is the Modulus of Elas+city and
yield is the yield stress.

Example
A 0.0359in thickness sheet (20-gage) is bent to a radius of 0.5in. Calculate the radius of the
part aper it is bent and the required bend angle to achieve a 90o bend aper springback has
occurred. Data: Yield Strength=40000psi; E=29x106psi
3

! Ro yield $
Ro yield
Ro
= 4#
+1
& 3
Rf
Et
" Et %
3

! 0.5 40000 $
0.5
0.5 40000
= 4#

3
+1 = 0.942
&
6
6
" 29 10 0.0359 %
Rf
29 10 0.0359
R f = 0.531in

Lb = o ( Ro + kt ) = f ( R f + kt )
!
!
0.0359 $
0.0359 $
o # 0.5 +
& = 90 # 0.531+
&
"
"
2 %
2 %
o = 95.4 o

Bending Force

K L UTS t 2
Fb =
W

The bending load can be calculated from the following equa+on:

Where UTS is the ul+mate tensile strength of the material (psi);
L is the length of the bent part (in), t is the thickness (in);
W is the width between the contact points (in) or 8t for V-bends
K is 1.3 for die opening of 8t, 1.20 for die opening of 16t, 0.67 for U-bending, 0.33 for a
wiping die

Example:
Es+mate the force required for a 90 degrees bending of a St 50 steel of thickness of 2mm
in a V die. The die opening can be taken as eight +mes the thickness. The length of the
part is 1m.
Die Opening W=8*2=16mm
UTS=500MPa
2

K L UTS t 1.331 500 ( 0.002 )

Fb =
=
= 166.25kN
W
0.016
2

Minimum Bend Radius: On the inside of neutral plane, the metal is compressed, while on

the outside of the neutral plane is stretched. The outer layers

under tension should not be excessively stretched as there is the
possibility of rupture.
The amount of stretching depends on the sheet thickness and the
bend radius. There is a minimum bend radius that depends on the
material proper+es. Minimum bend radius 0.5t for sop materials,
3t for spring steels and 1t for the others.

Example:
A sheet material is to be bended according to
the dimensions given in the gure. Determine
the following: (a) star+ng blank size and (b)
the bending force necessary if a V-die will be
used with a die opening dimension of W=1.0.
Data: E=30000ksi ; Yield Strength=40000psi
and a tensile strength=65000psi.
Length L = 1.75, and the length of the part is: 1.5 +1.00 + BA.
R/t = 0.187/0.125 = 1.5 < 2.0, so Kba = 0.33
For an included angle A = 1200, then A = 600

! 60 $
Lb = ( R + kt ) = #
& ( 0.187 + 0.33 0.125) = 0.239"
" 180 %
Length = 1.5 +1.0 + 0.239 = 2.739"
Force:

F= (KbfTSLt2)/W = 1.33 (65,000)(1.75)(0.125)2/1.0 = 2,364 lb

2

K L UTS t 1.331.75 65000 ( 0.125)

Fb =
=
= 2364lb
W
1
2

Bending and Forming Tubes

Stretch-Forming
The form die is pressed into the
work with force Fdie, causing it to be
stretched and bent over the form. F
= stretching force.
It is used extensively in the aircrap
industry to produce parts of large
radius of curvature. The materials
used are very duc+le.

Spinning

Ideal for
Lower produc+on volumes
Large parts
Inexpensive tooling

www.dissco.co.nz

www.ashfordmetalspinning.co.uk
www.tradi+onal-building.com

(a) Schema+c illustra+on of the shear-spinning process for making conical parts. The
mandrel can be shaped so that curvilinear parts can be spun. (b) and (c) Schema+c
illustra+ons of the tube-spinning process

Roll Bending

Roll Forming

Large metal sheets and plates are

formed into curved sec+ons using rolls

Con+nuous bending process in which opposing

rolls produce long sec+ons of formed shapes
from coil or strip stock

High Energy Rate Forming

Explosive Forming

Short +me High Energy forming processes. It

includes explosive forming, electrohydraulic forming
and electromagne+c forming.
Use of explosive charge to form sheet (or
plate) metal into a die cavity.
Explosive charge causes a shock wave
whose energy is transmiYed to force part
into cavity.
Applica+ons: large parts, typical of
aerospace industry.

Electromagne<c Forming
Sheet metal is deformed by
mechanical force of an
electromagne+c eld induced
in the work-piece by an
energized coil.
Presently the most widely used
HERF process
Applica+ons: tubular parts
A pinched aluminum can, produced from a pulsed magne+c eld created by rapidly discharging 2
kilojoules from a high voltage capacitor bank into a 3-turn coil of heavy gauge wire. Source: Bert
Hickman, Stoneridge Engineering.

Hydroforming
Hydroforming uses water at high
pressure to force the piece into a specic
shape.