Fold Sheet Metal Inventor

The advantage to using folds over flanges is no material is added by adding.

Fold sheet metal inventor.

A fold on a sheet metal face forms about a straight sketched bend line that terminates at face edges. Specify the location of the fold line. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. Autodesk inventor webinar series.

Let s start with the rules of sheet metal. Click the bend line to use for the fold. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. Unfortunately sheet metal bending is not always going to be the same in every shop.

In fold location click one of the following to specify. Have a question for any sheetmetal workers. Use the fold command to fold a sheet metal face about a sketched line. On the ribbon click sheet metal tab create panel fold.

Creating a chart with your standard values is a key component of speeding up this process. Unlike the bend flange contour flange or hem features which all add material to the design the fold feature does not add material. Autodesk inventor allows for converting models to sheet metal. Autodesk inventor webinar series.

Use the fold angle to set the bend angle and the bend radius to override the radius set by the sheet metal styles if required. Click to indicate whether the line defines the centerline start or end of the bend. If the fold goes down the fold line is show dashed and if the fold is going up its shown as sol. Rule 1 you must have a consistent thickness.

Which means regardless where the model geometry originates you can convert it to sheet metal add sheet metal features and generate the flat pattern. I am being told by our shop here that when part is shown in the flat view the fab guy needs to see different style lines for folds the go up or down. Many software packages like solid works inventor and solid edge will let you incorporate a bend allowance chart into its calculations when developing flat patterns. Use fold location to set what the sketched bend line represents the start of the bend the end of the bend or the centerline of the bend.