Bend and Gauge Tables
Bend and Gauge Tables
(OP)
Hello All,
I have been using Solidworks to develop sheet metal parts for around 3 years now. Until now I have been relying on the preset bend and guage tables.
All was fine until we moved laser cutting/folding company and now they are reporting differences in achievable bends. Its causing me massive headaches, they seem to have no idea of k-factors and what not (neither do to be honest).
Is there anywhere a set of pre-made bend and Guage tables, at least I can make some comparisons between the resulting folds and what I draw. We work with sheet mild steel from 1mm to 6mm.
Any info would be greatly received. Many Thanks
I have been using Solidworks to develop sheet metal parts for around 3 years now. Until now I have been relying on the preset bend and guage tables.
All was fine until we moved laser cutting/folding company and now they are reporting differences in achievable bends. Its causing me massive headaches, they seem to have no idea of k-factors and what not (neither do to be honest).
Is there anywhere a set of pre-made bend and Guage tables, at least I can make some comparisons between the resulting folds and what I draw. We work with sheet mild steel from 1mm to 6mm.
Any info would be greatly received. Many Thanks






RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
Due to my limmited engineering knowledge I will leave the files until i have something solid to work from.
I think getting the sheet metal folders to give me some set-dimension examples will enable me to base a new bend table on the output. I cant beleive there isnt already preset files for this!
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
- - -Updraft
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
- - -Updraft
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
If I end up with something useful I'll be sure to post it on this site.
I'm still at a loss as to why this isn't a standardized thing!!
Again thank you very much!
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
The reason this is not standardized is because too many things can affect the results, such as the particulars of the bending dies. That is why most places develop their own K-factors or bend tables based on their actual conditions, i.e., materials and thicknesses, bending dies, etc. We worked with our production folks to use the same die sets for certain bends instead of the mix-and-match they had been doing. This was a surprise to them how big a difference that made.
Be very careful to get an actual micrometer measurement of the material thicknesses you use. NEVER rely on a) the published industry standards for gauge thickness or b) what the material supplier says they delivered.
We made it our policy to recheck the gauge thicknesses every six months and any time we added a new material. We were able to create our own gauge thickness table in SolidWorks and had easy reference to the K-factor information as we made our parts. As a result, we had parts with multiple bends come out to within .002" on the first article. We had very happy campers in production and QC.
- - -Updraft
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
Linkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tmH2y-spSU
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
Cheers,
Anna Wood
SW2012 SP4, Windows 7 x64
http://www.renderbay.com
http://www.solidmuse.com
http://www.phxswug.com
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
For what it's worth, light gage (.03-.19) steel and aluminum sheet metal I've used .445 k-factor with success for brake work, with modelling the actual bend radius (1x to 2x material thickness), with tolerances of +/-0.010 typical. For folding machines, thicknesses to .06 we've kept the same blank development as the brake. For .075 and thicker we've dropped the k-factor progressively lower. Our folding machine software went through a teaching cycle of coupons with different materials and thicknesses. The software then calculates the correct blank size and I can put that development back into the solid model.
I'd recommend you review your question with your tooling and equipment suppliers too. They will be able to give you guidance.
Regards, Diego
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
Yes this seems to be the answer I am finding more often. The problem is there is a lot of people between me and the guy who bend the metal, when talking to there draftsman I asked for a k-factor for a simple fold, only to be met with complete silence while he worked out that he didnt know the answer to any of the questions I was asking.
I think i will proceed by having a set of bends made on different bending tools with different guage materials, at least this way i have a reference to work from, and also a comparisson between what solidworks is telling me and what i can actually expect.
Thankyou all for your answers! Its greatly aprechiated
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
If you order formed parts, you can hold the manufacturer responsible for the final form. Any competent vendor can make a flat pattern to match his particular process. Those who can not are too expensive to deal with, no matter how cheap their bad parts are.
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
A bend allowance is only good for one thickness, one radius and one type of material.
Any attempt to do otherwise only leads to misery.
The short dirty trick is to cut some 2" wide strips out of varying thicknesses of material. get the shop to bend a 1" flange at different radii and measure the results. Then you can make your own bend allowance/deduction table.
B.E.
RE: Bend and Gauge Tables
"A bend allowance is only good for one thickness, one radius and one type of material."
... and one punch, and one die, and one machine, and one operator.
... and often enough, one heat or lot of material, and one grain direction.
I agree that it's a good idea to get some test bends made.
Now, take them to a well lit area with some measuring tools and some magnification, and measure what you've actually got.
Up close, it won't look anything like what you'd draw.
All the more reason to specify dimensions after folding, only.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA