Hi guys,
If you are one of those guys who care about accuracy and the best sheet metal work outcome, this is the right post for you.
I have learned so much from this forum so its just about time to post something that can be helpful to somebody else.
We all heard about Rules of Thumb for K-Factors & Recommended K-Facors for this and that. You can find them all over the Internet but wow those rules? Only good for mechanical designer who cares about nothing. Those rules are as rough as guts + How do they know what Tool for Bending and Settings are our guys going to use?
How do they know the real situation?
Now to the point.
You can find some very accurate Calculators Online but I have come up with K-Factor Calculator in the form of Solidworks Part & Drawing without using spread sheets and tables.
Please download those two attached files, put them in the same folder, make sure the drawing is linked to the part and try it.
All you have to do is the open the SLDPRT and:
- Change Sheet Metal Part Thickness
- Change required Radius of Bend
- Put in your Bend Deduction Value that you should already know from your bend samples.
- Rebuild / Save & Close the Part.
My Example is:
ALU 2.5 - Bend R1 - Bend Deduction 4.09 mm.
Open my SLDDRW and:
- Rebuild just in case
- Follow Step 1
- Follow Step 2