How to use 3D CAD sheet metal parts layout?

2023-12-13 11:44:05

2 forms of sheet metal parts

Sheet metal parts are generally used as machine parts through "bending", but since bending is continuously added to the "developed shape", there are two forms of "developed shape" and "product shape" in the manufacturing process.

Expand Shape

As a material for making the "product shape", the "developed shape" shown in the left drawing is required ". The unfolded dimension needs to be calculated taking into account the plastic deformation due to the bending process. Can use the processing enterprise's proprietary technology "bending table" and so on.

Product shape

Although the design department uses the "product shape" to arrange the design and drawings, in order to discuss whether the shape of sheet metal parts can be expanded, it also needs to consider the "expanded shape". If you use 3D CAD, you can switch between Product Shape and Unfold Shape while designing a part.

typesetting

The so-called typesetting refers to the discussion of the layout in order to be able to cut out more developed shapes of sheet metal parts from a sheet metal material of a predetermined size. Affected by the shape of sheet metal parts, sometimes more parts can be cut, sometimes not.

Although 3D CAD has no typesetting function, it can use the component function to study typesetting.

By arranging the "developed shapes" of sheet metal parts in the assembly, you can know the number of parts that can be obtained from the sheet metal material of the specified size. In the case of this article, 10 sheet metal parts can be obtained.

Design change and typesetting

A clever designer will obtain layout drawings from the manufacturing department before discussing design changes to sheet metal parts. Because the "shape change" of sheet metal parts will reduce the number of parts obtained by typesetting, which will directly lead to the increase of parts cost.

Consider the case where bending is added to the design change shown in the left figure. This situation can be considered a simple change in design, but it will have a greater impact on typesetting.

Using the 3D CAD assembly function to create a typography layout in advance, the "design change" of the part will be reflected immediately. In the case of this article, it can be confirmed that 10 parts cannot be obtained from the sheet metal material of the specified size due to additional bending. Because designers can identify the impact of their own design change scenarios, they can discuss other "design change" methods.

According to the above figure, it can be seen that the design change scheme using incision bending will not have any impact on typesetting.

Summary

By using the sheet metal features of 3D CAD, you can design sheet metal parts, including "unfolded shapes. In addition, since the layout can also be discussed at the same time by using the component function, it is possible to design in consideration of the cost.