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Bending Very Thick Ar500

SirFlamenco

Plastic
Joined
Apr 14, 2020
I want to use a press brake to bend 1.5" thick Ar500. The dimensions of the plates are 16" by 16" and it will be bent at various different angles. What sort of tonnage am I looking at?
 
You're going to need 200+ tons for sure--depends a lot on how wide your bottom die is. The tonnage required
varies depending on the width of the bottom die. The calculator I use doesn't show AR500 so I have no hard
numbers. The other thing you're going to have to consider is point loading--a 16" wide part in a 12 ft. wide press
will really concentrate the load...

Accurpress Tonnage Calculator
 
As stated, you need a large bottom die opening. Standard is 8x thickness.

If you are bending a radius, most press brakes dont have that much depth at the cylinder frame area, to be able to bend directly under the cyljnder. Most have less then 12 inches. So it will be hard to find a brake that will do that kind of small job.

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As stated, you need a large bottom die opening. Standard is 8x thickness.

If you are bending a radius, most press brakes dont have that much depth at the cylinder frame area, to be able to bend directly under the cyljnder. Most have less then 12 inches. So it will be hard to find a brake that will do that kind of small job.

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Most meaning the last of the American made machines. The rest of the world pretty much starts at 16" throat depths.
 
Most meaning the last of the American made machines. The rest of the world pretty much starts at 16" throat depths.
Yes straight in, but if you measure on an angle. A lot of them get smaller. Like my brake has 12 1/2" clearance straight back but only 8" if you went on a 45* angle.

Just things to consider when bending

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Yes straight in, but if you measure on an angle. A lot of them get smaller. Like my brake has 12 1/2" clearance straight back but only 8" if you went on a 45* angle.

Just things to consider when bending

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I'm not following on the angle part.
 
Bending AR plate is always risky. If you can determine the grain direction of the plate that can help to prevent fracture.
In my previous life as a brake operator I initially had zero experience with the stuff. One day we for a job bending some 3/8th AR plate about 8 feet long. I figured it would be a difficult push and used a wide bottom die around 3 inches. A millwright was helping me and after we had clamped the plate I picked up the foot control and pulled it out to its full reach. The millwright asked what I was doing and I said for him to stand back. His eyes bugged out as we listened to the creaks as the plate did the bend.
I had only a few years experience and the next day I described bending this stuff to an old guy who ran a placer mining equipment outfit. He expressed surprise that we bent 3/8 plate and said I was lucky. He recounted that years ago at Dominion bridge in Vancouver an operator was bending AR and the plate fractured. The man was standing in front of the plate as it shot out and decapitated him. General policy was not to bend any AR plate over 1/4 thick. He suggested that the customer obviously knew that and sent the job to us in the hopes we would bend it.
Be safe.
 
You will need a shit ton of capacity for that. I have no conversions for shit ton to actual tonnage.

In other words, if you have to ask, you don't have enough.

If fact, I don't know anyone that would take that bend on. Even if they had sufficient tonnage, it would be spread over a large length, and putting point loads on a giant press break is a recipe for destruction.

I used to routinely bend AR, and it doesn't follow the rules.
 
I don't know if this applies to AR500 steel, but traditional "armor steel" in general could only be punched very slowly. I'd guess that this would apply to bending as well.
 
...I don't know anyone that would take that bend on. Even if they had sufficient tonnage, it would be spread over a large length, and putting point loads on a giant press break is a recipe for destruction...

Just to qualify that bit, the amount of point loading that a press can handle is directly related to its capacity.
A 200 ton point load in the middle of a 750 ton press bed would not likely cause problems but if you apply
the same load on a 250 ton press and you're asking for trouble...
 
No further comment from the OP. It might help if he were to explain why he wants to bend such thick/small pieces of a difficult metal.

How does AR500 take to welding? If you can accept the HAZ in the weld zone, maybe a better option than trying to bend it?
 
I think maybe a billion
in fact it sounds like that will take the most powerful press ever
better get with the president
 








 
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