Calculating K Factor Sheet Metal Bending

The k factor is a key basic concept in solidworks sheet metal design and must be understood in order to learn sheet metal design and fabrication well.

Calculating k factor sheet metal bending.

Then input leg length a and b to get the flat size of the sheet. As a result overall sheet length increases. Therefore using k factor there is no need to calculate sheet metal flat length manually. This change in sheet length depends on the position of neutral axis or k factor.

The k factor is nothing more than a multiplier that can give you an accurate value for the relocated neutral axis. What is the k factor. From there we can calculate the k factor and the bend deduction. Whereas the outer surface is stretched.

Best way to calculate k factor in sheet metal is by reverse engineering. Then input the bend angle to get the arc length bend allowance and bend deduction. Sheet metal bending methods design tips k factor bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. The part of the material that bends.

Calculate k factor bend allowance and y factor for sheet metal bending. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. As shown in figure 1 below k t t. Figure 2 illustrates the sheet that is bent with the bend angle of 90 degrees.

We will start by calculating the bend allowance. K factor in sheet metal bending is a constant that is used to calculate sheet metal flat length. The inside radii are based off of a standard air bend force chart. The below microsoft excel chart is for even numbered gauges 8 through 24 and has a default k factor of 33 for each.

Sheet metal bend allowance chart pdf. After bending the sheet we need to do some measurements as shown in figure 2. The k factor is defined as the ratio between the material thickness t and the neutral fibre axis t i e. The k factor is the most important and elusive variable of bending because it varies both as a function of the material and according to parameters such as angle and tooling.

You can easily modify the material thickness inside radius and k factor for each thickness at the top of each column. Input material thickness and and inner radius to get the data of k factor y factor neutral layer. And if you know the bend allowance you can extract the k factor from it. The k factor is fundamental to designing precise sheet metal.

Typically the k factor is going to be between 0 and 5. In order to find the k factor you will need to bend a sample piece and deduce the bend allowance. Sheet metal flat length can be calculated using cad softwares. Once you know the k factor you can use it to predict the bend allowance for various angles.

When sheet metal is bend the inside bending surface is compressed.