Looking freelancer job in internet, I found some potential projects in sheet metal product design - a contest that ask me to build material take off and CAD ready for laser cutting of plate steel in freelancer(dot)com. Since I have experience in company that has core product in sheet metal processing, I get excited to accept this challenge and participate to this project. But before I started perform my project, I prefer to recall my mind about sheet metal processing.
Generally, there are three type of sheet metal processes: Shearing, Bending and Drawing. Shearing is the mechanical cutting of material. When blades are straight – process is called shearing but when blades are curved – processes called blanking, piercing, notching or trimming. Bending is plastic deformation about a linear axis with little or no change in the surface areas. If multiple bends are made with a single die – process is called forming. When axes of deformation are not linear – process is called drawing and/or stretching.
Main major processes in shearing are piercing and blanking. The tooling and processes are the same between the two, only the terminology is different: in blanking the punched-out piece is used and called a blank; in piercing the punched-out piece is scrap. Beside these two processes, there are various type of blanking and piercing: lacing, perforating, notching, nibbling, shaving, cutoff, and dinking.
The picture shows the process of blanking and piercing (punching) on washer manufacturing
Bending is a manufacturing process that produces panel box, sheet metal channel, door frame profile and many other applications. There are several types of bending methods and roll forming is one of bending methods that produce sheet metal frame profile continuously.
One of sheet metal bending process
Deep drawing is the metal working process used for shaping flat sheets into cup-shaped articles such as bathtubs, shell cases, and automobile fenders. Generally a hold down or pressure pad is required to press the blank against the die to prevent wrinkling. Optional pressure pad from the botto may also be used.
drawing fo cup shaped part
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