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MP-I - Unit 5 - Sheet Metal Working
MP-I - Unit 5 - Sheet Metal Working
UNIT –VI
Sheet Metal Working
What is Sheet Metal?
• Sheet is a piece of metal whose thickness is between
0.006(0.15 mm) and 0.25 inches(6.35 mm).
• Anything thinner is referred to as a foil and thicker is
considered as a plate.
• Sheet thickness is generally measured in gauge. Greater
the gauge number, thinner the sheet of metal.
• Sheet metal can be cut, bent and stretched into nearly
any shape.
• Generally two types of operations are performed-
forming and cutting.
Sheet and Plate Metal Products
• Sheet and plate metal parts for consumer and
industrial products such as
– Automobiles and trucks
– Airplanes
– Railway cars and locomotives
– Farm and construction equipment
– Small and large appliances
– Office furniture
– Computers and office equipment
Advantages of Sheet Metal Parts
• High strength
• Good dimensional accuracy
• Good surface finish
• Relatively low cost
• For large quantities, economical mass
production operations are available
Sheet metal operations
A) Metal Cutting operations B)Metal forming operation
1) Blanking 1)Bending
2) Punching(piercing) 2)Drawing
3) Notching 3)Embossing
4) Perforating 4)Forming
5) Slitting 5)Coining
6) Lancing
7) Shaving
8) Shearing
9) nibbling
Basic Types of Sheet Metal Processes
1) Cutting
– Shearing to separate large sheets
– Blanking to cut part perimeters out of sheet metal
– Punching/ Piercing to make holes in sheet metal
2) Bending
– Straining sheet around a straight axis
3)Drawing
– Forming of sheet into convex or concave shapes
Shearing
• Shearing is
defined as
separating material
into two parts.
• It utilizes shearing
force to cut sheet
metal.
Blanking and Punching
(b) Corresponding
workpart:
(1) starting blank
(2) drawn part
Shapes other than Cylindrical Cups
• Square or rectangular boxes (as in sinks),
• Stepped cups,
• Cones,
• Cups with spherical rather than flat bases,
• Irregular curved forms (as in automobile body
panels)
• Each of these shapes presents its own unique
technical problems in drawing
Coining
• It is a cold working sizing operation.
It is used for the production of metals
coins.
• The coining processes consists of die
and punch. By using the punch and
die, the impression and images are
created on the metal.
• The pressure involved in coining
process is about 1600Mpa. The metal
flows plastically and squeezed to the
shape between the punch and die.
• The metal is caused to flow in the
direction of perpendicular force. The
type of impression is formed by
compressive force. The type of
impression obtained on both sides
will be different
Power and Drive Systems
• Hydraulic presses - Use a large piston and
cylinder to drive the ram
– Longer ram stroke than mechanical types
– Suited to deep drawing
– Slower than mechanical drives
• Mechanical presses – Convert rotation of
motor to linear motion of ram
– High forces at bottom of stroke
– Suited to blanking and punching
Mechanical Press
The ram is actuated using a flywheel. Stroke motion is not
uniform.
Hydraulic Press
Longer strokes than mechanical presses, and develop full force
throughout the stroke. Stroke motion is of uniform speed, especially
adapted to deep drawing operations
Dies for Sheet Metal Processes
• Most of the press working operations performed with
conventional punch-and-die tooling
• The term “stamping die” sometimes used for high production
dies.
Types of dies
Made up of tool steel and used to cut or shape.
material Based on the type of die construction
• Simple die
• Compound die
• Progressive die
• Transfer die
• Multiple die
• Simple die
• Perform single operation for each stroke of the press
slide
• Simple dies or single action dies perform single
operation for each stroke of the press slide.
• The operation may be one of the cutting or forming
operations.
• Compound Dies
• Several operations on the same strip may be performed
in one stroke with a compound die in one station.
• These operations are usually limited to relatively
simple shearing because they are somewhat slow and
the dies are more expensive than those for individual
shearing operations.
Compound Die
Schematic illustrations: (a) before and (b) after blanking a common washer in a
compound die.
Note the separate movements of the die (for blanking) and the punch (for
punching the hole in the washer).
Progressive Dies
• Parts requiring
multiple operations,
such as punching,
blanking and notching
are made at high
production rates in
progressive dies.
• The sheet metal is fed
through a coil strip and
a different operation is
performed at the same
station with each
stroke of a series of
punches.
Progressive die
• A progressive
has a series of
operations.
• At each station ,
an operation is
performed on a
work piece
during a stroke
of the press.
Transfer Dies (Combination Dies)
• Stretch forming is a
metal forming
process in which a
piece of sheet metal
is stretched and bent
simultaneously over a
die in order to form
large bent parts.
• In stretch forming, the sheet metal is clamped around
its edges and stretched over a die or form block,
which moves upward, downward or sideways,
depending on the particular machine.
• Stretch forming is used primarily to make aircraft-
wing skin panel, automobile door panels and window
frames.
Beading
• In beading the edge of the sheet metal is bent into the
cavity of a die.
• The bead gives stiffness to the part by increasing the
moment on inertia of the edges. Also, it improves the
appearance of the part and eliminates exposed sharp
edges
(a) Bead forming with a single die. (b) Bead forming with two dies, in a press brake.
Bulging
• The basic forming process of bulging involves
placing tabular, conical or curvilinear part into a split-
female die and expanding it with, say, a polyurethane
plug.
• The punch is then retracted, the plug returns to its
original shape and the part is removed by opening the
dies.
(a) Bulging of a tubular part with a flexible plug. Water pitchers can be made by this
method. (b)Production of fittings for plumbing by expanding tubular blanks with
internal pressure. The bottom of the piece is then punched out to produce a “T.” (c)
Manufacturing of Bellows.
Strip layout
• In the design of blanking parts from strip material, the
first step is to prepare blanking layout, that is, to layout
the position of the work pieces in the strip and their
orientation with respect to one another.
While doing so, the major consideration is the economy
of material.
• Another important consideration in strip layout is
the distance between the blanks and the strip edge and
distance between blank to blank. To prevent the scrap
from twisting and wedging between the punch and the
die. The distance must increase with material thickness.
• A general rule of thumb is to keep this distance equal to
from 1 to 1.5times the material thickness. The following
figure are example of strip layouts.A – Front scrap
B – Bridge thickness
(space between parts and strip
edge,and part to parts)
C – the distance from a point
on one part to the
corresponding point on the
next part.
H – Part width
l - Length of part
W – Width of strip
Y – Scrap recovery at end
N – Number of blanks
t– thickness of strip
L – Length of strip
Strip layout
Method of reducing Cutting force
• The Cutting force is the force which has to act on the
on the stock material in order to cut
• out the blanker slug. This determines the capacity of
the press to be used for particular tool.
• It sometimes becomes necessary to reduce the cutting
force to prevent press over loading.
1.Stepped punches to be used.
2.Grinding the face of the punch or die to
a small shear angle.
• 1.Stepped punches
• The method of reducing cutting forces is to step punch length. Punches
or group of punches progressively become shorter by about one stock
material thickness.
• This will results in distribution of force during the blanking or piercing
action on the punches interns reducing in total force.
• During shearing action lengthier punches will take cutting action at first
time and once the sheet is pierced for a sheet thickness, other shorter
punches will enter the sheet to get the required holes. This type is
mainly used in piercing of more number of holes on the component.
2) Grinding the face of the punch or die to a small shear
angle.
• A second method is to grind the face of the punch or die
to a small shear angle with the horizontal. This has the
effect of reducing the contact area while shearing at one
time. Providing shear also reduces the shock to the press
and smoothens out the cutting operation. The shear angle
chosen should provide a change in punch from 1 to 1.5
sheet thickness.
• Various types of shear angle are shown in the figure.
Double shear angle is preferred force acting on the punch.
Double shear angle on punches should be concave to
prevent the stretching of the material before it is cut.
Shear angle may be applied either to the punch face or to
the die face, depending on whether the operation is
blanking or piercing because shear will distort the work
material.
• The shear angle for blanking operation will be on the die
member, while, as the piercing operation the shear angle
will be given on the punch member.