Sheet Metal Forming & Bending
Sheet metal forming and bending folds a flat piece of sheet, a blank, along straight lines into flanges, the walls and mounting faces that stand out from each bend. K-Display forms brackets, channels, trays, and enclosure panels from your formed drawing or model.
What forming does to a flat blank
A press brake lowers a punch into a die, the grooved block below the sheet, and folds the blank along a straight line, and a sequence of bends turns it into a bracket, channel, or tray. The metal springs back a little when the punch lifts, so each fold is pressed slightly past its final angle. Formed parts in carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminum, galvanized steel, and galvanneal leave bare, or welded, powder coated, and fitted with hardware.
CNC punching forms a small raised or recessed detail in the flat sheet with a forming tool, before any bend is made.
The sheet touches the tools along three lines only: the punch nose and the two die shoulders. With open space under the fold, the depth of the punch stroke sets the bend angle.
Parts we form
Forming suits parts that take their shape from straight bends, from a single piece to repeat orders. Laser cutting and CNC punching cut the flat piece that forming then folds, and a small raised or recessed detail goes to the punch instead.
- Mounting brackets folded from one blank, with a face that seats against the mount
- Channels with two flanges that stiffen a panel or locate a component
- Enclosure panels and covers with bent edges that stiffen the flat sheet
- Trays and chassis sections with several bends that hold components
- Materials
- Carbon steel, Galvanized steel, Galvanneal, Stainless steel, Aluminum
Bend order around the weld and the hardware
A flange folded first can block the torch or the press that seats hardware later. Because the parts we form are welded and fitted with hardware next, the bend order keeps a clear path to each weld and each piece of hardware.
Fold the first bend
The blank lies across the die and the punch folds the first bend to its angle.
Fold the rest in order
We fold the remaining bends one at a time, with the tooling and the bend order following the material, thickness, and flange length, until the last flange is up.
Move the part onward
Formed parts ship bare, or are welded, powder coated, fitted with hardware, and assembled first.
Design for forming
A tall flange blocks the punch that folds the next one, so on a channel one upright wall restricts access to the other. Dimension each flange height on the formed view; we set the bend order from those heights so the punch has room for every bend.
Metal moves as it bends and pulls a nearby hole out of round. Keep holes and slots clear of every bend line on the drawing; we cut them in the flat, so a feature drawn inside the bend zone is stretched by the fold.
Where a bend ends near an edge or a feature, the sheet tears unless a bend relief, a small cutout at the end of the bend, separates bent from unbent metal. Draw the relief at the end of each such bend, and we cut it in the flat with the outline.
Both flanges stand at the same height, so the punch that folded the second one worked beside a wall no taller than its own. The two holes lie on the flat base between the bends, in the one place neither fold reaches.
What to send for a forming quote
- Formed drawing
- Current revision with the formed views, plus the model.
- Material
- Metal, grade, and the thickness of each part.
- Bend geometry
- Angles, inside radii, flange lengths, and tolerances.
- Critical dimensions
- The surfaces that control fit with mating parts.
- Quantity
- Quantity per order and the repeat schedule.