MEL 310 – Manufacturing Process Automation

Lecture 2 –Sheet Metal Operations

Course Coordinator
Shital S. Chiddarwar, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Nagpur
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• Sheet metalworking includes cutting and forming operations performed on
relatively thin sheets of metal.

• Typical sheet-metal thicknesses are between 0.4 mm (1/64 in) and 6 mm (1/4 in).

• When thickness exceeds about 6 mm, the stock is usually referred to as plate
rather than sheet.

• The sheet or plate stock used in sheet metalworking is produced by flat rolling

• The most commonly used sheet metal is low carbon steel (0.06%–0.15% C is
typical).

• Its low cost and good formability, combined with sufficient strength for most
product applications, make it ideal as a starting material.
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The commercial importance of sheet metalworking is significant. Industrial products that include sheet or plate metal parts:
automobile and truck bodies, airplanes, railway cars, locomotives, farm and construction equipment, appliances, office
furniture, and more.
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 Tm is the melting point (absolute temperature) for the particular metal

Sheet-metal processing is usually performed at room temperature (cold working). The exceptions are
when the stock is thick, the metal is brittle, or the deformation is significant. These are usually cases
of warm working rather than hot working.

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 SPRING BACK of METAL

• One of the principal concerns in sheet metal operations

is the spring back of the metal.

• When the metal is deformed, it is first elastically

deformed and then plastically.

• When the applied load is removed, the plastic

component of the deformation remains permanently
while elastic part springs back to its original shape.

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 SHEARING ACTION
• Cutting of sheet metal is accomplished by a
shearing action between two sharp cutting edges.

• As the punch begins to push into the work, plastic

deformation occurs in the surfaces of the sheet.

• As the punch moves downward, penetration

occurs in which the punch compresses the sheet
and cuts into the metal.

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SHEARING ACTION

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• At the top of the cut surface is a region called the rollover.
• This corresponds to the depression made by the punch in the work prior to cutting.
• It is where initial plastic deformation occurred in the work.
• Just below the rollover is a relatively smooth region called the burnish.
• This results from penetration of the punch into the work before fracture began.
• Beneath the burnish is the fractured zone, a relatively rough surface of the cut edge where continued
downward movement of the punch caused fracture of the metal.
• Finally, at the bottom of the edge is a burr, a sharp corner on the edge caused by elongation of the metal
during final separation of the two pieces.
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Clearances

The clearance between two shears is one of the principal factors controlling a shearing process.

This clearance depends essentially on the material and thickness of the sheet metal.

This clearance can be approximated per side C, as

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clearances per side x

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The clearances per side that are provided for normal working materials

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• If the clearance is too small, then the fracture lines tend to pass each other, causing a
double burnishing and larger cutting forces.
• If the clearance is too large, the metal becomes pinched between the cutting edges and an
excessive burr results.
• In special operations requiring very straight edges, such as shaving and fine blanking,
clearance is only about 1% of stock thickness.

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SHEARING, BLANKING, AND PUNCHING

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 SHEARING, BLANKING, AND PUNCHING
• Blanking involves cutting of the sheet metal along a closed outline in a single step to
separate the piece from the surrounding stock
• The part that is cut out is the desired product in the operation and is called the blank.

• Punching is similar to blanking except that it produces a hole, and the separated piece is scrap,
called the slug.
• The remaining stock is the desired part.
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• These calculated clearance values can be applied to conventional blanking and hole-punching
operations to determine the proper punch and die sizes.

• The die opening must always be larger than the punch size (obviously).

• Whether to add the clearance value to the die size or subtract it from the punch size depends on
whether the part being cut out is a blank or a slug

• Because of the geometry of the sheared edge, the outer dimension of the part cut out of the sheet
will be larger than the hole size.

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 Angular Clearance

• For thicker and softer materials, generally higher angular clearances are provided.

• The normal value is from 0.25 to 0.75 degree per side but occasionally a value as high as 2 degrees may be used.

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Stripper Plate

Stripping Force Formula

A general estimate of the stripping force may vary from 2.5 to 20% of the punch force but 5 to 10
percent is good for most of the applications.
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Punching Force
The force required to be exerted by the punch in order to shear out the blank from the stock can be
estimated from the actual shear area and the shear strength of the material.

The punching force for holes which are smaller than the stock thickness may be estimated as follows

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Shear

To reduce the required shearing force on the punch, for example to accommodate a
large component on a smaller capacity punch press, shear is ground on the face of
the die or punch.

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Calculation of maximum shear force when shear is applied to the punch or die

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A round disk of 20-mm diameter is to be blanked from a strip of 1.5-mm, C20
steel sheet. Determine (a) the appropriate punch and die sizes (b) Blanking
force (c) stripping force

Shear strength of annealed C20 steel is = 294 MPa

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A hole with 100 mm diameter is to be punched in a steel plate of 6 mm thickness. The material is
cold rolled C40 steel for which the maximum shear strength can be taken as 550 MPa. With normal
clearance on the tools, cutting is complete at 40% penetration of the punch. Give suitable
diameters for the punch and die, and shear angle on the punch in order to bring the work within the
capacity of a 200 kN press available in the shop.

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