×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Cambering aluminum angle

Cambering aluminum angle

Cambering aluminum angle

(OP)
Would like to uniformly camber a 3"x3"x.25", 10 foot aluminum angle the hard way (flange in). Camber height would be 5% of the cord 6". Material grade to be determined. Need 5 pieces.
How could this camber be formed without heavy equipment? For starters, two lengths may have to be clamped back to back, while forming, to minimize off plain curves. Suggestions and comments appreciated.

RE: Cambering aluminum angle

kennewton,
Find a guy with a Buffalo roller and give him the job.
B.E.

RE: Cambering aluminum angle

Agree with Berkshire.  Don't try to do it with heat, as you might for steel.  Aluminum gets all screwy in strength when you heat it.

I would probably not use a terminal heat alloy (for instance, T6 in 6061 or 6063).  I would use a lower treatment such as a T4 or T5, to cut down the potential for cracking.  You can always treat later for strength.

RE: Cambering aluminum angle

(OP)
Don't know anyone in the area with a roller. Was considering a press and multipule small bends every few inches. Not shure how to do this without twisting or off plain bends.

RE: Cambering aluminum angle

For angle half that size and half that thickness, you could use a metal shrinker or a ring roller, both of which you can buy at Harbor Freight.
... you might buy them, or download and study the manuals, just as a learning experience.

For angle in your size, you really need a three-ring roller, a fairly big one.  Nobody gives them away.  Even used ones in decent shape can be expensive.  Ask your local used machinery dealer.

Incremental bends in a press brake will require that you fabricate some kind of slotted fixture to support the flange, and even with an experienced operator, the result is not going to be pretty.

Luckily, you don't need extreme curvature, so you might be able to clamp  one flange to a steel table, and induce the curvature by beating sideways on the free flange with a block of steel and a big hammer.  Make a checking template from plywood to guide you.  Work out the technique on a piece of smaller angle first.  

If your labor is worth anything, it will be cheaper to buy the ring roller, even a new one...


If you can't find anyone local who routinely bends AL angles and such, you may be able to flush one out, somewhere, by making a sketch and putting it up for bid on mfg.com.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Cambering aluminum angle

kennewton
The other thing you might look at for this job is stretch forming the parts. This is not something you can do in house, but for a person with a stretch forming machine, the tooling can be simple, even crude, a couple of 3/4" plywood plates cut to the curve you need can suffice.
 Try stretch form USA inc  or if you insist on rolling them this company has several plants in the USA , one of them may be near you.
http://angleiron.net/Augusta

B.E.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources