Forming Stainless Steel Sheet

Stainless steel sheets are cut into blanks then placed in the hydroforming press one at a time over a punch.

Forming stainless steel sheet.

This makes bending stainless steel with common hand tools difficult and a sheet metal brake is often required although one technique to bend stainless steel using hand tools works well on shorter length bends. Pretty much all the common engineering metals are also used in the form of sheets. As you bend a stainless steel sheet the bend area cold hardens increasing the amount of pressure required to finish the bend. As the punch rises.

Traditionally cold bending is widely used in stainless steel sheet and steel parts. Unlike carbon steels work hardening rates for stainless steel mean that more severe deformation is possible at slower forming speeds. Hydroforming stainless steel is a cost effective process that results in a higher quality product than die stamping methods can produce. Figure 1 shows the experimental setup used by takuda.

These alloys also tend to respond well to cold forming. Typical automotive skin panels are just 0 65mm thick so 3mm thick is a huge increase in material mass and means the press has to be many times larger to stamp thicker 3mm material. 1 cold bending forming. We can accommodate a stainless steel blank up to 32 inches in diameter.

Some of them are carbon steel stainless steel copper and aluminium. The following is a brief introduction to some of the common cold forming methods for stainless steel. Previous studies by shinagawa and takuda indicate that warm forming of stainless steel sheet reduces martensite formation when forming at elevated temperatures. 2 3 these researchers performed drawing tests of cylindrical cups made of types 304 and 316 stainless steel.

Stainless steel sheet 16 gauge 304 2b. Austenitic stainless steel can be used to produce deep drawn components that require very high elongations and thus stainless steel is widely specified for the production of hollowware. Studies on stainless steel warm forming. The rollers used to finish the sheet emboss the surface finish onto the sheet.

At the end of the article we will be discussing different forming methods used with sheet metal. An example drawing note might read material. Typically the rollers are precision ground with a smooth finish. The punch press is basically open type single moving mechanical or hydraulic transmission with a long and narrow table.

In addition elon has specified 3mm thick stainless steel which greatly increases forming tonnages required. Another good alternative is duplex stainless steel which combines the properties of austenitic and ferritic stainless steels. Bright annealed 2r stainless steel sheet without any additional polishing. It should also be noted that austenitic stainless steels can t be heat treated meaning that cold forming may be your only option.

3 this publication is intended to indicate selected processes that make optimum use of stainless steel s forming potential.