Press-brake profiles
Sheet that is only folded along straight lines, on the press brake: the angle, the channel, the lipped C channel, the Z and the hat. There is no surface to develop; what is calculated is the blank, the width of the strip before bending, and where to mark each bend line.
Bent Profile (Angle, Channel, Z and Hat)
Sheet metal bending calculator: the blank of an angle, U channel, lipped C, Z or hat from the K-factor, the bend deduction and the bend lines in DXF. Free.
Which profile to use
- Angle, channel, lipped channel, Z or hat, at any angle between faces: Bent Profile.
- Rectangular duct folded from one strip, with the seam at a corner: Rectangular Transition, with equal ends.
- Box with a pan-shaped end cap: Plenum.
How it is calculated
Every flange is measured outside, to the virtual sharp. In the bend the sheet does not turn at a point: it turns through an arc of inside radius r, and the neutral axis, which neither stretches nor shrinks, sits K times the thickness from the inside face. The blank is the sum of the outside dimensions minus the bend deduction of each bend.
K comes from Mario Rossi's table by the ratio of radius to thickness, or from the value you type. The result gives the blank, the deduction per bend, the bend lines with their distances, the PDF template and the DXF with a bend layer.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the bent blank shorter than the sum of the dimensions?
- Because the sum of the outside dimensions counts the corner of each bend twice, and the sheet only uses the neutral-axis arc there. In 2 mm sheet with a 2 mm radius, each 90° bend deducts 3.54 mm.