Punching Sheet Metal Thickness

Gauge sheet steel.

Punching sheet metal thickness.

Sheet and plate generally refers to rolled metal with a high surface area to volume ratio. The thickness of the metal being punched thicker metal is harder to punch neatly. Sheet metal punching via ironworker is a slow process. If punching one square hole in the 3mm thickness low carbon steel plate side length 20mm you will get.

The punch force required to punch a piece of sheet metal can be estimated from the following equation. Punch force kn 80 x 3 x 0 3447 82 728 kn convert into tonnage. 2 to 1 for stainless 1 to 1 for carbon steel 0 75 to 1 for aluminum. 1 2893 7 3 2812 7 1 2 2576 6 5 2656 6 7 3 2391 6 1 2294 5 8 2500 6 4 4 2242 5 7.

Typically ironworkers are used for thicknesses greater than 1 8. Also watch out for punch deflection especially if you re working with small hole diameter to material thickness ratios. The die clearance ideally increases as thicker sheet metal is punched but in practice some standard dies can be used for a range of materials. Most of the sheet metal cutting processes discussed can be performed.

This is because the stripping action of the punch coming out of thin materials causes the sheet metal to deform. F 0 7 t l u t s displaystyle f 0 7tl uts where t is the sheet metal thickness l is the total length sheared perimeter of the shape and uts is the ultimate tensile strength of the material. A deflecting punch requires more tonnage to break through the material and again increases distortion. You will see from our cnc punch tooling tables that we have a range of die clearances to cover sheet metal materials from 0 4mm thick up to 5 0mm thick.

Generally capabilities of of 0 9mm 20mm in thickness are able to be manufactured from sheet 3mm or plate 3mm but this tolerance depends mainly on the part. The difference is that sheet metal is under 1 4 inch 6mm in thickness while plate metal is thicker. Shear strength 0 3447kn mm 2. Perimeter 20 4 80mm.

For example when punching a round hole it is generally recommended that the minimum diameter of the hole should be larger than the thickness of the metal. And the type of metal being punched harder metals are more difficult to punch.