Relief Cuts In Sheet Metal

A 1 degree tolerance on all bend angles.

Relief cuts in sheet metal.

Options in basic sheet metal base flange tab. Sheet metal parts with a minimum of 0 9mm to 20mm in thickness can be manufactured. To eliminate this a bend relief is added so the edge of the sheet metal is perpendicular to the bend. Bends in sheet metal are manufactured using sheet metal brakes.

Sheet metal parts may have sharp corners but designing a fillet of the material s thickness will make parts more cost effective. For example if you make a partial flange as above using all the defaults the software makes relief cuts at the end of the bends as shown to the right. This same tool can be used to make a flat piece of sheet metal that one would use to add edge flanges and other useful sheet metal features. In general a minimum bend relief is equal to the material thickness plus the inside bend radius.

If you select rectangular or obround specify the relief ratio. One benefit of a bend relief is that it makes the part easier to produce. To change the type of relief cut for all bends. When designing parts for laser cutting one should not make holes smaller than the thickness of the material.

Not shown scroll down in property manager is an auto relief setting that controls how corners and relief cuts are handled. In the propertymanager under auto relief change the type of relief cut. If it is ok for the metal to rip the minimum bend relief is zero.