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Andrew Warren Striker Systems, Striker Technology Solutions, Engineer Support Service
MA219-3 Learn how to draw sheet metal parts or assemblies in Autodesk Inventor that manufacturing can fabricate. If youve been told something cant be made, or been given a model that is impossible to make with their current manufacturing capabilities, join this class to learn how you CAN make it. If you are a designer who works directly with a manufacturing facility, or a manufacturer having problems producing what has been designed, then this class is for you. If you know how to make a part and know how to draw in Inventor, this class will put the two together.
ConceptualIssuestoaskyourself e a u y e
WhatistheMostImportantpartofSheetMetalDesign? t M m n o t D ?
Knowy yourPart!
What is it for? Where does it go? ? What is it exposed to? d What kind of loads? How long should it las st? How impo ortant is cost t? Is it a one of a kind or a productio run? e r on Are their Time issues for the cust T s tomer, is this a test, s should we go the extr mile to ma this a e ra ake marketing drawing? g
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Corners/BendReliefsDoweusebendreliefs?
What happens when we just tear them? What if it is somewhere in the middle? Did they figure out with 2D they had to add here, or subtract there, add tool over there? - MFG may have to Re-Zero their thinking because of this. - Does this information travel back to engineering or stay on the floor What are bend tables How does the K-Factor help me? Can you rely on the k-factor without doing test bends Are you marking bend locations for the Press Break? Are you following through to make sure the finished product is correct? When should I make a change to the flat versus the 3D model? Which environment should I use? Inventor vs. AutoCAD vs. CAM systems Stainless, Powder coat, Paint, Bare steal, laminate, anodized, galvanized, chrome plated? How do I plan for this in my design? You are adding heat when making these (laser, plasma, Punching) will this affect the design? Are you etching with a laser or marking tool? Do we need to oversize the blank to account for post finishing ? Add so much weld need to reduce part size to allow room for it? When you go from designing each part independent to designing them as a whole what happens? Do you still make them one by one, or nest the entire thing?
DoesMFGadjustbends?
BendTables?
DoesTempaffecttheparts? Etching?
PostFinishing/Welding? Assemblydesignvs.PartbyPartdesign
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3Dmea ansbetterdesigns r
3D allows for less scrap, less rework, more accountability - No longer can mistakes be r; , k o a blamed on the design. Do D we need to make it smaller to be easier to ship, what about packaging, will it be bent t m o n in shipping? n
Shippin ngParts
PhysicalIssues c s
PressB Breaks/FormingTools(RASfolders,Rollers,Benders) F T S R B
W What do we own, what ca we form, Does Size M o an Matter? A lot of m manufactures use the sa s ame dies for different ma aterials because of the time it takes to a i change them. Press Br reaks tools generally des g scribe the siz of the die opening ze e not the ra adius it is go oing to form. So if your M MFG floor tel you lls they have a L-1 with a UP-1 o top, this m e wi on means it can bend a 1/32 rad dius* in the part you are bending. Be p ecause it had a 1/32r d top punc with a wide openin in the bott ch ng tom die. Too oling is actually l less than 90 to allow for spring back and air ben 0 r k nding, reducing tonnage req g quired to ben the part. nd *Depending on meta thickness a type. al and
Bendta ables/KFactor
Does our par use a funky bend calcu D rt y ulation? So ome Manufac ctures make bends that cannot be m e modeled. For exa ample, some bend a hem with a RA folder, the run it bac e m AS en ck thr rough withou the die and crush it to create a ver tight hem to ut ry ma an interake -locking part.
Before yo start crea ou ating special bend tables to make IN flats matc what the f s NV ch floor uses. M Make sure the Operators on the press break are not using an unfolder in t controller of the brea or o the ak, e-programme fudge fac ed ctors added in because o AutoCAD designs. So of ome machine es have pre you type in the folder part distances and then let the break figure the flat, Invent can make a r e tor e ore e them go bac to the flat dims. Some of the new Breaks can ck e w n much mo accurate flat; make t automatically add ad dditional bend distances to account f wrong fla (i.e. you t them to b for ats tell bend he adds 1/32 au utomatically). it at 2, th machine takes the 2 bend and a
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WhatistheKFactororBendAllowances
When sheet metal is bent, the inside surface of the bend is compressed and the outer surface of the bend is stretched. Within the thickness of the metal, lies its Neutral Axis, which is a line in the metal that is neither compressed nor stretched. If you have a piece with a 90 degree bend in which one leg measures A, and the other measures B, then the total length of the flat piece is NOT A + B. To work out what the length of the flat piece of metal needs to be, we need to calculate the Bend Allowance or Bend Deduction. This will tell us how much we need to add or subtract to our leg lengths (A & B) to get exactly what we want. The location of the neutral line can be different depending on the material itself, the radius of the bend, the ambient temperature, direction of material grain, and the method by which it is being bent, etc. The location of this line is what is referred to as the Kfactor. K-factor is a ratio that represents the location of the neutral sheet with respect to the thickness of the sheet metal part. To find if your manufacturing process works best with Inventors Bend allowance is to reverse engineer a sheet metal part. Measure strip of material, bending it, and measuring it will give you the correct bend allowance. These bend allowance can be measured for many materials and scenarios and then be used in an Inventor bend table
ReverseEngineeringtheKFactor
First, cut a strip of material and measure its length and thickness as accurately as possible. The width of the strip is not that critical but generally somewhere around 4 inches or so will work. Then, bend the strip to 90 degrees, and measure its Length X and Length Y as shown in the diagram below.
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Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Manufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication e n c ect utodesk Inve entor can now be calcula w ated as follow ws: The corre K-factor to use in Au BendDed duction = To Flat Leng X Leng Y K-Fact = (-BendRadius (BendDeduction / otal gth gth tor o ( * Bend dAngle / 180 / thickne 0))) ess The other option Inventor has is a Bend Tab option to control flat patterns. e e ble The bend table file is an ASCII fo d s ormat .txt file You can e a bend ta e. edit able file with a text edito or h or you can c create one with a spread w dsheet. A sa ample bend table file and a spreadsheet are d included in the \Autodesk\Invento [version]\Design Data or a\Bend Table directory. es .
ToolingLimits(P g (Punch)
Can C our punc ches rotate ( (Auto-Indexing Stations, A.I.), Do we have keyed punches, what e about the station it is in? achine with 90+ stations all A.I., you will more th likely no have more s u han ot e Unless you own a ma than a co ouple AI stat tions. If poss sible only ha special to ave ools in one d direction. Machine Tonnage; do we have speci e ials that are made to do this? M If you are punching with a standa turret in an AI station tonnage m be less than you think. e w ard n, may On a 50 ton machine the AI stations are typically rated a 20 to 25 to because of the AI e at ons e station, y will get an error if yo use to larg of a punc in too thic of materia in a AI stat you a ou ge ch ck al tion..
Formin ng/Specialtools
D we use: lo Do ouvers in bot directions Keys, extrusions, Custom made to th s, ools? Here is a good way to use the pu t unch reposit tion to make communica ation easier f from design intent to actual CNC/ /CAM and M Manufacturing. You can a also make fo orms that do not unfold o correctly show up as a special sh s hape for the CAM progra to recognize it is a fo am orming tool.
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Buyingnewtools
Are we limited to what tools we already own, if we do buy a new one what is the turn around on getting it? If you are designing something that you will need a new special tool for, you should notify manufacturing as soon as you can. You can get tools in as little as a few days for standard shapes, but it can take weeks for special shapes, and longer for form tools.
Tonnage
If we own an older 50 Ton Machine can it really hit with all 50 Tons? If you are working with tough or thick materials you need to know what the limits of your machine are and if it is up to those limits. You can work with you machine dealer you use for maintenance to have the tonnage tested. You may also want to design your parts with thinner material to keep from over tonnage your machine and or tools.
MaterialAvailability
Do we use standard sheets, do we have to order, what if we run out, what other sizes can we use? If you are designing something on material that cost $1,000 sqft, then you need to make sure manufacturing knows to handle parts with care. If one gets damaged it could be a week or more to get replacements depending on where in the world it comes from. You may design a flat 60 x 190, but they may come back and say we have the extra stock 60 x 120 sheet can we use them and redesign the parts to fit them. The cost and time savings may be worth doing a little redesign.
Grainconsideration
What happens if part needs to have gain in the Y axis and it is over the table limits? Stainless and titanium manufactures have to watch material grain direction. This must be taken into account of the design. If you design a part with grain running east west, yet taller in the Y, this can be a problem if the Y dim is taller than the y on machinery you own.
PartSize
Will it fit in our machines, will it fit out the door of the shop, and will it fit on a truck? As above, will it fit on the table of a punch press or laser? Then you have to think can it fit out the door of the shop, on a truck, or can your forklift pick it up. You may have to design it to be broken down into smaller pieces.
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Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man e nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication c
Assemb bly
Do D we make and assemb it? Does it need to be partially assembled and then shipped ble e s n and finished onsite? o D we buy pa already made? Do arts Rememb final asse ber embly is not the end gam of the de me esign. It may have to be broken dow y wn into piece for shippi es ing. It would be good to break these parts into a e actual sub-as ssemblies in n Inventor, the same way they are manufactur w red. e ed careful not to send purch o hased parts to If you use purchase or outsource parts be c Manufacturing. With much of the CNC Fabric e cation softw ware they can pull all She metal pa n eet arts. s, re d n FG They will pull all parts but allow you to omit parts that ar purchased or made in another MF area.
Partco omesfirst t!
P at the en is all that really matte Part nd ers!!!! It doesnt matter how good or ho bad a mo t w ow odel is, what the idw or d dwg looks lik or how much ke, FEA and analysis yo do. The ph ou hysical part is all the cus stomer cares about. s
Templa ates
M Multiples, Horizontal, Ver rtical, Long, Short. One thing that takes a lot of time to set up ar g e re ipropertie and supp es, porting inform mation to be entered e into a mo odel. You ca save some time by en an ntering everythin that is gen ng neric and the having di en ifferent groups o templates. Here I have a .prt temp of e plate for Horz, Ve Short, and Tall parts. Find the co ert, . ommon threads in your parts and then pr s re-populate your templates. Pa 8 of 8 age
Standa ards
K.I.S.S. and write them down, then make sure to keep it consistent K o Standard do not hav to be elab ds ve borate book on how to ks drawn a line in a ske etch. Start a little at a tim and just me puts som notes in a word docum me ment laying out what has to be don and why. Add a coup of screan shots and ne ple n picture is worth a tho s ousand word ds. Ex. show the part and the inform ws mation for ed banding dge g, along wit descriptions of the abbreviations. Dont forget th t to add the actual loca ation in the i iproperties w where it e should be added. If you cha ange these do not forge to tell ever et ryone where, how, and when they changed, in d ncluding cont tractors and MFG per rsonnel.
Revisio ontrackin ng
W What kind of Data Manag gement do y use? you rd d If you dont use Vault or other 3 party data managemen do so now Designers can get aw nt, w. s way racking revis sions to an e extent. It is e easy to overw write or dele files you need. Also if you ete without tr copy a de esign from one part to a o another, IV is stubborn enough to be linked to the original s e without y realizing it. Tracking design revis you sions and de esign status is helpful fo many reas or sons. If you have a DM solution, it will automatically track and keep revisio up to date. This allow ons ws you to ro back to a previous ver oll p rsion with the flip of a sw e witch.
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Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man e nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication c The Cust tom Properties shown are for mater part numbers so the operators on the floor know rial n what stoc to pull to manufacture this part. ck e
Fe eatures
SheetM Metal
A Parts need to be calle Sheet Metal if they are SM parts e All d ed even Plate A lot of m manufactures may outso s ource or have separate f shops fro the rest o e fab om of manufacturing. If you send all Sh u heet Metal p parts to a Fab Shop via a b automated s system or ma anual passing o parts, make sure you identify the Plate parts as SM too. M of Most people dont consid a e der 1 thick p as SM, but if you are burning it o a laser or plasma it is the same t part b e on r s thing.
vsExtrude e Holesv
If you have a hole to add to a part f which do you use? w Always tr to use the hole tool w ry e when drawing g simple or even comp r plex holes, yes some times wh importing dwg sketches you can hen g n use extru ude. If you use the hole command it will make it easier to find later for editing. e NO Extru to add material!!! Yo can use ude m ou Face, Fla ange, Couture Flange, b no but straight e extruded fea atures; this w bite you will some day This can also make the flat n unable to unfold because adding material in o g a area it cannot come from. Face wor just like extrude but ensures the rks e e flat will w work correctly when mad y de.
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Bending
Tools are har to change and expens T rd e sive to buy, bend feature are easy to change es If you use sh heet metal st tyles correct you can m tly make changes on the fly to kee changes on the floor c ep r away. a Check with t floor man C the nager to see how often t e they change Brea tooling. If they prefer to use the same c ak tools for multiple gauges look at you design and ask t s ur d does it have to have tha big/ small of a corner e at radius? If yo design is a little flexible you can r our s save a lot of man hours using the sa s f ame tooling. Set all a the bends in the range they use o the floor t an s on to actual radius instead of a formula. a s The Rad dius on the left is set to t thickness; th one on th right is set to , will this really he he change the design? ?
s.Assembl ly Partvs
D you punch or burn flat blanks with holes, then in assembl drill additio Do h t h n ly onal holes? Try addin the holes during asse ng embly to the top level as ssembly. The will not sh ey how up on th he flat blank but will be in the model. Model it th way it is g k he going to be b built in your p production / manufacturing proce ess.
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Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication c
Flat
#1imp portantSM Missue!!!! !
Will W Inventor make it into a flat? Is it c complete, do the flat designed match the flat oes a going into the press break, if not why e y?
If you designed a part and Inventor will not make a f flat, chances are it will be very s e difficult to manufactu If you ge an error o ure. et like this y may wan to check t flat to you nt the see what is wrong. In t nventor will u unfold it and d show you the interfer u rence. If you have to u have this flat, then yo are going to have to s ou g make it a separate part and faste it to the en original. You want your flat in Inventor to match 110% % of what is produced physically on the floor. If s p n f it does no find out why You m be ot w may correcting or allowing for someth g hing that is derstood on the floor. not even used or und Just beca ause that was the way it has always w been don is not a good reason ne: g n.
Definition Bend relie are added to prevent the metal fr n: efs t rom tearing when it is f g folded. Tear is r really the wrong verb e biage, in reality it wrinkle most of th time, or ca es he ause anothe part to ben or er nd bow out. If part size and shape to a olerances ar pushed beyond the lim manufa re mits acturing has to add the r reliefs to con ntrol this war rping of the m material. al K tolerances, a manufac and cturing is rem moving them before the m If the fina part is OK and within t blank is f formed, remove your Inv ventor relief as well. If th floor is ad he dding it witho you telling out them, you may want to add the s same one to the Inventor model. On scree Bend relie tent to lo larger than they are in real life, t en efs ook thus designe exaggera ers ate the gaps. If you make 14 gauge stainless ste cabinets and you mo e eel odel a gap w .015 spa with aces and a tea corner, ar you sure? I have seen SS welds b as large a 3/16 to 1 thick. Th ar re n be as 1/4 he Pag 12 of 12 ge
Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man e nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication c same goes for bend reliefs, bigger and smaller. If you ha a turret, try to use a common size ave z punch for reliefs to lim tool chan mit nges.
eps FlatRe
P Punch and fo ormed featur going to the Flat res With Inve entor 2008 you can spec what pun y cify nches look like in the fla representa at ation. In the past any kind of punch or something t that stretche metal did not make a pretty flat. T es This makes it CNC CAM software to a s automatically pick it up a add tooling correctly You create it y and y. e hard for C as a stan ndard ipart and then crea a second a ate dary sketch to be the rep position. To create a Punch to with alter e ool rnate flat: 1. C Create the pu unch using s standard par rt modeling feat m tures such a cut in the case of as th vent cluster punch. his Note: Dont fo N orget the cen mark in the nter in nitial sketch. Pag 13 of 13 ge
Autodesk Inventor and Sheet Metal Man e nufacturing: From Drawing to Fabrication c 2. C Create an alte ernate flat re with a sim ep mple sk ketch. 3. U the Tools Use s>Extract ife eature to ma the ake sh heet metal punch out of the feature you p f cr reated. 4. S Select the Sim mplified Rep presentation arrow and pick your simplified s r sketch for the e . alternate rep. 5. S Save your ife eature 6. W When you ins the ifeat sert ture it will loo ok normal, when you activat the flat it w n te will e appear as the sketch. This give you some es ething easier for CNC so r oftware to find an reduces the size of yo model w nd t our when you have multiples of the types of punches. ese
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