Patterned aluminum - how hard is to to get a custom run?

[GregSY]

How difficult (money and general interest) is it to get custom patterned aluminum produced?

I'm talking about thin material...maybe .020" or so, with a fine pattern rolled into it. The pattern would be a fine mesh but custom to my specs - no 'off the shelf' pattern would work. It's probably more accurate to call it embossed aluminum. I'd need flat sheets that were 48" x 96", maybe 30 of them.

This is hypothetical, I don't have any actual plans to buy them. But I am wondering what the world is like in this regard...is this something hard to get? Let's assume it could be produced anyplace in the world as long as it looked good.

 

[Mtndew]

My guess.. you would have to find someone to make roll dies and run the parts.
I'm sure there are other ways though. But it probably won't be as cheap as you'd like.

 

[sable]

I wonder if a punch press could be set up to do this .

 

[metlmunchr]

Wouldn't surprise me if the setup costs exceed $100K if you could find a mill interested in producing it.

 

[AndyF]

Could you do a chemical etch rather than embossing? Set up charges would be much lower.

 

[GregSY]

Thanks everyone. Here is a pic of the aluminum. What's key here is it would need to look exactly like this....'pretty close' is not good enough. Those squares are about 1/8" or so.

Any difference in opinions?

 

[Fulmen]

Seems like something that could be done by rolling, that increases your options.

 

[jrmach]

View attachment 99613Thanks everyone. Here is a pic of the aluminum. What's key here is it would need to look exactly like this....'pretty close' is not good enough. Those squares are about 1/8" or so.

Any difference in opinions?

Why?
For looks or function?

 

[Ries]

Its possible, but not cheap. The rolls to do this are 48" wide, which really means 54". And they are big honkers- most likely 8" to 10" diameter. I am pretty sure they used to use a positive and a negative, but nowadays may use a positive and a neoprene backing roll. But machining even one roll that big aint cheap.

These guys are the main textured sheet rolling company left in the USA-
Rigidized Metals .... patterns 5WL, 6WL, 6SL, 6HC, 2WL, RTP, XTP for Industrial, commercial and Architectural Applications
Obviously, they have been in business a long time, all their equipment is long paid for- and, off the shelf sheets like what you want generally run $100 to $150, depending on thickness and material. Custom, you gotta figure a lot more.

There are very few companies doing this- most people you find online are just reselling rigidized metal.

I cant imagine there are enough 58 Fury's out there to justify the tooling.

There is a new process, using CNC punch presses, that some companies are starting to use to emboss short run patterns. Might work.
The guys who have pushed it the farthest are Zahner, as they have been getting the jobs to do really high end architectural custom work.
Zahner » MetaShape?

 

[BobRenz]

Looking at your sample, chemical etching wouldn't give you the radiused edge. One way or another, you will probably have to stamp it. It might be possible to do this with a hydraulic press or a press brake. A die could be cut to possibly do the job in short lengths, and with the right set of stops and alignment guides, it might all be workable.

One trick I have seen about is machining the profile on an aluminum tube, then splitting the tube and flattening it out, but if your shape has to be very wide (large tube) and long, this probably isn't the answer.

 

[GregSY]

The sheets could probably be trimmed to 18" wide prior to rolling - I just used 48" as a common sheet size.


This started as a discussion on another site where someone had looked into doing this (58 Fury aka "Christine")and came up with a price of around $13,200 per car with a minimum pre-paid order of 20 cars before work would being. It seems like a lot .... The finished product is silver anodized and trimmed to size. My guess is two (or less) 18" x 96" strips would do one car.

Why does it need to be exact? Well....because anyone coughing up thousands of dollars to make their Fury 'right' will insist on it being right, not kinda close.

 

[number 2]

Form tool and a planer?

Then polish up later.

 

[DocsMachine]

View attachment 99613Those squares are about 1/8" or so.

-Are the lines 1/8" or are the squares 1/8"?

How big is the actual part? It seems to me, that for a very limited run of material (enough to do a couple dozen cars or so) a die could be made from plain mild steel (or 4140, etc.) and mounted in a hand-operated machine sort of like an english wheel or beefed-up bead roller. If the part is only a few inches wide (rough non-engineer guess, less than 6" or 8" maybe?) and thin, fairly soft aluminum, just have the die milled by somebody with a CNC with a 4th axis, and build, cobble or adapt some kind of frame to hold it.

Seems to me it could be done for a lot less than your quarter-million-dollar quote.

Doc.

 

[adama]

Easy and fast to just bump that in on a press-break with a flat bolster underneath, Final plate might not even need a polish to look like that. But it probally will need some flatening. Easy and fast with a cnc back gauge. Will allow you to perfectly match the pitch and will look as identical as you can be bothered to pay for a top tool to be ground. Heck if you can accept a very slight diffrence to the grove a good std small radius tool might even work well enough.

Will go out on a limb here, but if you could pull a order together for at least 20 or so cars this should be easily under 1K a car. If you were nearer i would happily price it as a real job. I do a lot of these kinda weird replica parts that involve processes of scale that need to real creativity to pull off for a low qty order at a sensible - viable price.

Kinda surprised you can not find a source for it some were though. Most of thoes specials would be too expensive to make sense for even a OEM. Hence there normally bought in off someone. You just have to find them if there still around!

 

[GregSY]

Here is the car....you can see the lone 'silver' strip don the side. The strip angles up at the back, hence the need to start with a wide piece. Most cars, today, use some sort of paint or mylar reproduction.....original material does not exist anyplace. I'm not a Fury owner and don't ever plan to be, but the guys who restore these cars I'm sure would pay $1500 or more for a proper set of inserts.

 

[surplusjohn]

here is a way to make an exact copy. I have no idea how much it would cost. start with an original and electroform a mold off of it , then pull electroformed positives off the mold. they will be exact down to a sneeze. the finished parts can be nickel and as thin or thick as you want. this may also be a way to make an embosing die. BTW, you may want to contact Ridgidized metals, they may of been the maker of that material and may still have the tooling.