MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Sheet Metal Working

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Sheet Formed Parts
 Sheet Metalworking
• Sheet metal is used for car bodies, airplane wings, medical
tables, roofs for buildings(architecture) and many other
applications. Sheet metal of iron and other materials with high
magnetic permeability, also known as laminated steel cores, has
applications in transformers and electric machines. Historically,
an important use of sheet metal was in plate armory worn by
cavalry. Beverage cans, kitchen utensils and many other parts.
• Sheet metalworking includes cutting and forming operations
performed on relatively thin sheets of metal.
• Typical sheet-metal thicknesses are between 0.4 mm and 6mm
• When thickness exceeds about 6 mm, the stock is usually
referred to as plate rather than sheet.
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 Advantages of Sheet Metal Parts
• High strength
• Good dimensional accuracy
• Good surface finish
• Relatively low cost
• For large quantities, economical mass production
operations are available

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 Sheet Metalworking Terminology
1. “Punch‑and‑die”
– Tooling to perform cutting, bending, and drawing
2. “Stamping press”
– Machine tool that performs most sheet metal operations
3. “Stampings”
– Sheet metal products

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 Sheet Metalworking
• Sheet-metal processing is usually performed at
room temperature (cold working) .

• The term stamping press is used to distinguish

these presses from forging and extrusion presses.

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 Three Major Categories of
Sheet Metal Processes
1. Cutting
◦ Shearing to separate large sheets; or cut
part perimeters or make holes in sheets

2. Bending
◦ Straining sheet around a straight axis

3. Drawing
◦ Forming of sheet into convex or concave
shapes

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Sheet Metal Operation
 Sheet Metalworking
1.Cutting operations
Sheet Metal Cutting operations is done as Shearing
between two sharp cutting edges
• Fig on the next slide: shearing of sheet in four steps:
1. just before the punch contacts work;
2. punch begins to push into work, causing plastic
deformation;
3. punch compresses and penetrates into work
causing a smooth cut surface
4. fracture is initiated at the opposing cutting edges
that separate the sheet 9
Shearing of Metal Between Cutting Edges

1/3 of material is cut

and 2/3 of material
fractures
 Sheet Metalworking
1.Cutting operations
• Cutting of sheet metal is accomplished by a
shearing action between two sharp cutting edges.

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SHEARING

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SHEARING

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SHEARING

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SHEARING

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Material Coils
 Shearing
• Simple shearing- sheets of
metal are sheared along a
straight line
• Slitting- lengthwise
shearing process that is
used to cut coils of sheet
metal into several rolls of
narrower width
 Shearing operations

Several operations based on shearing:

• Blanking
• Piercing or Punching
• Notching
• Slitting
• Nibbling
• Shaving
• Lancing
• Perforating
 Shearing based Operations
• Perforating- piercing a large
number of closely spaced holes
• Notching- removes segments from
along the edge of an existing
product
• Nibbling- a contour is progressively
cut by producing a series of
overlapping slits or notches
 Piercing and Blanking
• Piercing and blanking are shearing operations where a
part is removed from sheet material by forcing a shaped
punch through the sheet and into a shaped die
• Blanking- the piece being punched out becomes the
workpiece
• Piercing or Punching- the punched out part is the scrap
and the remaining strip is the work piece

Figure: Schematic showing the difference between piercing and blanking.

Blanking
PUNCH

(Scrap)

DIE

Useful Part (Blank)

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Blanking

PUNCH
(Scrap)

DIE

Useful Part (Blank)

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Blanking

PUNCH

c c

DIE

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Blanking

PUNCH

2 50 - 4 2

50
DIE

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 Clearance in Sheet Metal Cutting
The clearance “c” in a shearing operation is the
distance between the punch and die.
• Typical values range between 4% and 8% of stock
thickness
– If too small, fracture lines pass each other, causing double
burnishing and larger force
– If too large, metal is pinched between cutting edges and
excessive burr results

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 Clearance
• The clearance between the punch and the die
plays an important role in the determination of
the shape and quality of the sheared edge.
• There is an optimum range for the clearance for
the best results.

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 Angular Clearance
• In order for the slug or blank to drop through the
die, the die opening must have an angular
clearance of 0.25° to 1.5 ° on each side.

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 Punching/ Piercing
• Punching/Piercing is similar to blanking except
that it produces a hole, and the separated piece
is scrap, called the slug .
• The remaining stock is the desired part.

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Punching/
Piercing
PUNCH

Useful Part

DIE

Slug (Scrap) 29
Punching/
Piercing

PUNCH
Useful Part

DIE

Slug (Scrap) 30
Punching/
Piercing

PUNCH

DIE

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Punching/
Piercing

PUNCH

2 50 2

50 + 4
DIE

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 Drawing
Sheet metal forming to make cup‑shaped, box‑shaped,
or other complex‑curved, hollow‑shaped parts

Products: beverage cans,

ammunition shells, automobile
body panels

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 Deep Drawing
A sheet metal forming operation used to make hollow-shaped parts
Deep Drawing
 Shapes other than Cylindrical Cups

Square or rectangular boxes (as in sinks),

Stepped cups,
Cones,
Cups with spherical rather than flat bases,
Irregular curved forms (as in automobile body
panels)

Each of these shapes presents its own unique

technical problems in drawing

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Example of a Deep Drawing Press
 Bending

Straining sheetmetal around a straight axis to take a

permanent bend

(a) Bending of sheet metal (b) both compression and tensile

elongation of the metal occur in
bending

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 Types of Sheetmetal Bending

V‑bending - performed with a V‑shaped die

Edge bending - performed with a wiping die

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 V-Bending
For low production
Performed on a press brake
V-dies are simple and inexpensive

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 Edge Bending
For high production
Pressure pad required
Dies are more complicated and costly

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 Spring back in Bending

Springback = increase in included angle of bent

part relative to included angle of forming tool
after tool is removed
Reason for springback:
– When bending pressure is removed, elastic energy
remains in bent part, causing it to recover partially
toward its original shape

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Hemming :
•The edge of the sheet is
folded over itself
•This increases stiffness of
the part
•The metal strip is bent in
stages by passing it
through a series of rolls
 Seaming
• Joining two edges of sheet metal by hemming
specifically shaped rollers used for watertight and
airtight joints
• Seaming is a bending operation that can be used to
join the ends of sheet metal in some form of
mechanical interlock
• Common products include cans, drums, and
containers

Figure: Various types of seams used on sheet metal .