Calculating K Factor Sheet Metal Bending

K factor in sheet metal bending is a constant that is used to calculate sheet metal flat length.

Calculating k factor sheet metal bending.

For example if the value of k factor for given material thickness and bending machines is known. The k factor is the ratio between the distance from the neutral layer to the bent inner surface and the thickness of the sheet metal. Then input the bend angle to get the arc length bend allowance and bend deduction. The k factor is fundamental to designing precise sheet metal.

Input material thickness and and inner radius to get the data of k factor y factor neutral layer. Figure 2 illustrates the sheet that is bent with the bend angle of 90 degrees. You can easily modify the material thickness inside radius and k factor for each thickness at the top of each column. Sheet metal bending methods design tips k factor bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations.

Typically the k factor is going to be between 0 and 5. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. The below microsoft excel chart is for even numbered gauges 8 through 24 and has a default k factor of 33 for each. Whereas the outer surface is stretched.

As a result overall sheet length increases. Calculate k factor bend allowance and y factor for sheet metal bending. The k factor is nothing more than a multiplier that can give you an accurate value for the relocated neutral axis. This change in sheet length depends on the position of neutral axis or k factor.

After bending the sheet we need to do some measurements as shown in figure 2. What is the k factor. Therefore using k factor there is no need to calculate sheet metal flat length manually. Since the k factor is based on the property of the metal and its thickness there is no simple way to calculate it ahead of the first bend.

Best way to calculate k factor in sheet metal is by reverse engineering. The part of the material that bends. The inside radii are based off of a standard air bend force chart. We will start by calculating the bend allowance.

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. 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. In order to find the k factor you will need to bend a sample piece and deduce the bend allowance. Sheet metal bend allowance chart pdf.

The k factor is defined as the ratio between the material thickness t and the neutral fibre axis t i e. And if you know the bend allowance you can extract the k factor from it. Sheet metal flat length can be calculated using cad softwares. Then input leg length a and b to get the flat size of the sheet.

From there we can calculate the k factor and the bend deduction.