1 Reply Latest reply on Jul 27, 2015 3:17 PM by Daen Hendrickson

    How can I cut a tear shape into sheet metal pipe and convert it to flat pattern

    Jake Martin

      Hi there,

       

      I am currently designing an outlet for a piece of equipment and I am having issues converting the piece to its flat pattern. This is the final product:

      Honda_Outlet,_50_Degree[2].jpgI am attempting to select the sheet metal piece which is a section cut from pipe in solidworks. I want to then convert the piece to its flat pattern so that I can convert it to a dxf and cut it from sheet metal on plasma cam. The following are the steps to creating the first version I attempted that worked in the program just fine:

      Honda_Outlet_45_Degree[1].jpgThis is the first cut in the sheet metal pipe. This angle is what determines the height of the piece when attached to the outlet. The second/final cut is simply a right angle to the original cut that also passes through the vertex of the part:

      Honda_Outlet_45_Degree_second_cut[1].jpg

      The next step is to simply unfold:

      Honda_Outlet_Piece_Flat[1].jpg

      Now this works great as you can see. The issue comes when I want to increase the height of the outlet to allow for more airflow. Below are the following steps:

      Honda_Outlet_Piece_50_Deg[1].jpgHonda_Outlet_Piece_50_Deg_second_cut[1].jpgHonda_Outlet_Piece_50_Deg_both_cuts[1].jpgThe height of this piece is just over 1.4, whereas the base is the normal length of 1.25 (though not labelled in this picture). The next picture is the issue I am facing:

      Honda_Outlet_Piece_50_Deg_error[1].jpg It appears that something to do with the dissymmetry between the lengths is preventing the part from being unfolded. Any thoughts on how to skirt this issue?

       

      Thanks!

        • Re: How can I cut a tear shape into sheet metal pipe and convert it to flat pattern
          Daen Hendrickson

          Jake,

           

          From your images, I am surprised your approach will flatten at any slicing angle.

           

          I suspect the issue is that the slicing produces an edge that is NOT perpendicular to the face. Solidworks Sheet Metal does not like this.

           

          Attached, is a sample I created in SW2013 SP3. There are two keys to my approach:

          • The tube profile sketch has a very small flat in it for SW Sheet Metal to use as the base flange.
          • The slicing cut is performed with the "Normal Cut" option selected to have a perpendicular cut as described above.

           

          I only tried this model at a couple of angles - 45 & 50.

           

          Hope this helps.

           

          Daen