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R
RaphMORIN16-Pearl
16-Pearl
September 8, 2015
Question

Sheetmetal variable thickness

  • September 8, 2015
  • 1 reply
  • 2339 views

Hello all, first time for me I'm stuck on sheetmetal !

Here's my problem. We have planned to make an aluminium sheetmetal 3mm thick part with just one simple bend. Our customer asked us to have a very small bend radius. As the part is only a cosmetic part (no heavy load or whatever) , we have thought of milling the bending area to make it 1mm thick on the bending zone. So it would look like something like this :

This one is made in solid mode. And of course I can't convert it to sheetmetal as it hasn't a constant thickness.

So I thought making it directly in sheetmetal mode, starting with a 1mm thick part. Then trying to thicken the part where I want. So far I thickened with surfaces but I can't solidify to make the part and it looks like this.

Your help is very welcome as we have to produce the parts this month !!

Thanks.


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1 reply

M
MartinHanak24-Ruby III
24-Ruby III
September 8, 2015

Raphaël,

I am not sheetmetal expert . Maybe the following procedure will help you.

  1. create sheetmetal part 3 mm thick
  2. assemble the part into auxiliary assembly
  3. in assembly create assembly cut removing unwanted material from the part a set its visibility in part
  4. you are finished

Martin Hanak

R
RaphMORIN16-PearlAuthor
16-Pearl
September 8, 2015

Thanks Martin. The problem with this method is that when I create a 3mm sheetmetal part I have a big bend radius. If I make my sheetmetal part without the bend radius, make the cut then I can't define the bend because it detects that the part hasn't constant thickness.

Meanwhile, I have found a sort of workaround but not completely satisfied with it. I make my sheetmetal part with a 1mm thickness. Then I make a solid part into which I import (fusion) my sheetmetal part. Then I create a copy of surfaces I want to be more thick. This way I can have a flat state of my sheetmetal with variable thickness using a family table where I change the "fusioned" part. I don't know if my explanation is very clear for you !

I'm not really satisfied because I have to deal with two parts and some cuts in my part are related to a parent assembly.

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