Bending Aluminum Sheet Without Cracking

Lift the clamp bar away from the rear of the brake frame and slide the sheet in perpendicularly to the direction you want to bend it.

Bending aluminum sheet without cracking.

Typically cracking or fatiguing is not an issue unless it needs to be unbent and reworked but that s pretty common of almost any malleable metal. Then place the clamp bar back down on top of the aluminum crosswise. The majority of aluminum base alloys can be successfully arc welded without cracking related problems however using the most appropriate filler alloy and conducting the welding operation with an appropriately developed and tested welding procedure is significant to success. For most aluminum sheet the inside radius of the bend should at least be equal to the sheet thickness.

Proper bending can be done with annealing the aluminum first although it s not an ideal candidate for formed parts. The aluminum series ability to bend tends to decrease as you move down the list of tempers from annealed to t4 and t6. Sure you can get away with it sometimes as the tempering will vary slightly and you might be able to get away with it being aluminum tubing without it cracking but i ve found that to get consistent results you need to use a bendable grade. The important thing to know is that it is brittle and will most often crack if you re trying to bend it with a tight radius.

You may find that you have to go to a 1 4 radius to keep from cracking. Bending along the grain makes these radii even more important. If the alloy is higher strength and or heat treated the radius goes up to double the thickness or more. Highly formable and one of the best kinds of aluminum to bend.