Sheet metal non uniform thickness

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

Hello,

I am into the filed of creo Automation using Toolkit.  I am into sheet metal group. For thickness of the part, is it okay to go with the assumption that thickness of all features inside a part tree (Flange, Flat, Extrude etc.) remains constant?

If not so, It will be better to have some example of varying thickness.

Regards

Ketan

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[BenLoosli]

Sheetmetal parts should always be a uniform thickness. You are bending a single piece of metal cut from a bigger sheet. Most flat pattern programs do not work if the material thickness is not uniform.

[Ketan_Lalcheta]

Correct... I was inline with your point... Then I came across  a point of having extra material at some place where it is not really required... Is removing extra material by cutting material in the form of hole or slot is the only option in this case??

[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure how you would get extra material on a sheetmetal thickness, unless some sort of spray metal disposition application. If that was needed, I would do it after the part is formed as a secondary process.

Holes, slots or a contoured shape cutout are the only methods for removing material from a sheetmetal part, without doing things like acid dipping to reduce the thickness in places.

I suppose you could do a hem-edge to double the material thickness before bending, but that might be hard to model and even harder for the flat pattern algorithm to understand the bending procedure.

[StephenW]

Depending on your reason for not wanting the "extra" material and your manufacturing method, there are several ways to remove extra material.

You can machine a area of your sheetmetal to remove material. I have machined sheetmetal parts to provide tightly toleranced features or to provide a mounting surface for an attached component that can't, for whatever reason be mounted on the face of the sheetmetal. Machining parts is typically an expensive option.

If you want to reduce weight, depending on your manufacturing methods, you can have holes or cutouts burned through your sheetmetal part prior to forming operations. It's fairly typical to cut sheetmetal with a torch burner or plasma burner or laser or waterjet on NC programed machines. Adding burn time to your sheetmetal cutout operation is typically a low cost operation but you will be completely removing the thickness of your part in those areas, not reducing thickness.

If you only need a small thicker area, consider welding on a pad to provide the extra thickness for just that area. Depending on your manufacturing, welding may be more or less expensive than machining. It may also introduce warpage to your sheetmetal because of the heat applied.

You would do well to understand the manufacturing capabilities at your disposal.