Tips to simplify designs
Mastering sheet metal design is key to achieving both precision and efficiency in manufacturing sheet metal parts.
By incorporating Design for Manufacturing (DFM) principles, you can streamline production, reduce costs, and maintain high-quality standards.
Whether you’re working with steel, aluminum, or copper, understanding the nuances of sheet metal processing can make all the difference.
In this article, we will dive into the core advantages and best practices that make sheet metal design an essential skill in modern manufacturing.
Advantages of sheet metal manufacture methods
- Material efficiency: sheet metal processing often results in less material waste compared to other methods, reducing material costs.
- Economies of scale: it is highly economical for producing large volumes, as the setup costs can be amortized over a large number of parts.
- Range of materials: sheet metal processing supports a variety of materials, including steel, aluminum, brass, and copper, allowing for diverse applications.
- Complex shapes: advanced techniques like laser cutting and cnc bending enable the creation of complex shapes and intricate designs.
- Structural integrity: sheet metal parts generally have high strength and durability, making them suitable for demanding applications.
- Resistance to wear and tear: properly processed sheet metal components can withstand significant wear and tear, extending the lifespan of the parts.
- High precision: techniques like cnc machining and laser cutting provide high precision and tight tolerances, ensuring parts meet exact specifications.
- Consistency: the repeatability of sheet metal processes ensures consistent quality across large production runs.
- Rapid production: automated sheet metal processing methods allow for fast production times, which can be critical for meeting tight deadlines.
- Prototyping and iteration: sheet metal processing supports rapid prototyping, enabling quick design iterations and faster time-to-market.
- Design flexibility: sheet metal can be easily customized with various cutting, bending, and forming techniques, accommodating a wide range of design requirements.
- Adaptability: modifications can be made relatively easily compared to some other manufacturing methods, allowing for design changes without significant cost increases.
- Aesthetic and functional finishes: sheet metal parts can be treated with a variety of surface finishes, including painting, powder coating, and plating, to enhance appearance and resistance to corrosion.
- Easy cleaning and maintenance: treated sheet metal surfaces are often easier to clean and maintain.
- Compatibility with other parts: sheet metal components can be designed to integrate seamlessly with other parts and assemblies, facilitating ease of assembly.
- Fastening and joining: methods like welding, riveting, and bolting are well-suited for sheet metal, providing strong and reliable joints.
Overall, sheet metal processing offers a combination of cost-effectiveness, versatility, strength, precision, and speed, making it a preferred choice for many manufacturing applications.
Javier L
Principal Systems R&D Mechanical Engineer
"Game changing in the online manufacturing space"
Jiga is the best way to get the parts you need, when you need them.
DFM principles
Choose materials carefully
Select carefully to be suitable for the intended application and compatible with the forming processes. Common materials include steel, aluminum, and stainless steel.
Material thickness
This heavily influences methods of bending, punching, and cutting operations.
Symmetry
Design parts with simple, symmetrical shapes to facilitate easy manufacturing and reduce the risk of errors.
Simplify
Avoid complex geometries that require multiple forming operations or specialized tooling.
Minimize variances
Maintain consistent bend radii, ideally greater than the material thickness, to prevent cracking and ensure uniformity.
Bend reliefs
Design bends with adequate relief to avoid material tearing and to ease the bending process.
Think about tooling
Consider coining or tooled bends for small radii, consider air bending for lower precision applications.
Consider position of features
Position holes and slots at least one material thickness away from edges, and other holes to prevent distortion and ensure structural integrity. Try to keep these features a larger distance from bends.
Standardize
Use standard hole sizes and shapes to reduce tooling costs and simplify manufacturing.
Minimize stress concentrators
Design tabs and notches with rounded corners to minimize stress concentrations and prevent cracking.
Take car over feature size
Ensure that tabs are not too small, as they may deform or break during forming operations.
Consider material grain
Align tabs at least 45° to sheet grain to avoid fracture risk.
Don't over or under tolerance
Apply appropriate tolerances that are achievable with sheet metal fabrication processes. Overly tight tolerances can increase manufacturing costs and complexity.
Dimensional with care
Communicate critical dimensions clearly to ensure they are controlled during production.
Consider assembly
Design for easy assembly by including features such as self-locating tabs, slots, and snap-fit joints.
Minimize the number of fasteners and use standard fastener types and sizes to simplify assembly.
Weld only where you must, design for lower effort methods.
Specify applicable finishes
Consider the surface finish requirements and any necessary treatments such as painting, plating, or coating.
Design parts to accommodate these treatments without affecting the overall fit and function.
Consider process as you design
Optimize the design for the specific sheet metal fabrication processes to be used, such as laser cutting, punching, bending, and welding.
Ensure that the design can be manufactured using available equipment and tooling.
Optimize material use
Reduce material waste by designing parts that maximize the use of standard sheet sizes and minimize scrap.
Simplify the part design to reduce the number of manufacturing steps and tooling changes.
By following these DFM guidelines, you can create sheet metal parts that are easier to manufacture, more cost-effective, and maintain high quality and performance standards.
Patrick J
Product Design
"Game changing in the online manufacturing space"
Jiga is the best way to get the parts you need, when you need them.
Conclusion
The relevance of the DFM process is highly significant in punch/press and die work in sheet metals.
There are a number of basic and relatively simple rules that guide feature details and placement. Adherence to these enables relatively easier manufacture and will create fewer quality challenges in volume production.
The overall design and aesthetic principles that guide sheet metal DFM are more flexible and adaptable to the context of the part, the skills and equipment of the manufacturer and the development process and experience of the designer.
Sheet metal work is a mix of ancient and modern skills and it can have a significant craft skill component to its execution. Those skills are not so applicable to volume production but they are typically reinterpreted in a modern manufacturing facility to deliver outstanding results, when the design is carried out such that it can be readily reproduced without major challenges.
