Knowledge of structural design of sheet metal parts (I): Introduction

Opening Preface:

Sheet metal (metal plate;; sheetmetal), a processing technology, has not yet had a relatively complete definition of sheet metal. According to a definition in a foreign professional journal, it can be defined as: sheet metal is a comprehensive cold working process for sheet metal (usually less than 6mm), including shearing, punching / cutting / compounding, folding, riveting, splicing, forming (such as automobile body), etc. Its remarkable feature is that the thickness of the same part is the same.

Sheet metal has the characteristics of light weight, high strength, conductivity (which can be used for electromagnetic shielding), low cost and good mass production performance. It has been widely used in electronic and electrical appliances, communication, automobile industry, medical devices and other fields. For example, sheet metal is an essential part in computer chassis, mobile phone and MP3.

With the more and more extensive application of sheet metal, the design of sheet metal parts has become a very important part in the process of product development. Mechanical engineers must master the design skills of sheet metal parts, so that the designed sheet metal can not only meet the requirements of product function and appearance, but also make the manufacturing of stamping die simple and low cost.

Based on the above reasons, the quick add editor feels it is very necessary to systematically sort out the data on the structural design of sheet metal parts, which is believed to be of some help to the users of quick add screen.

Knowledge of sheet metal structure design I: Introduction

The so-called thin plate refers to the steel plate whose thickness is much smaller than its length and width. Its lateral bending capacity is poor, so it is not suitable for the occasion under the action of lateral bending load. Thin plate is metal in terms of its material, but because of its special geometry and small thickness, the processing technology of thin plate components has its particularity. There are three types of processing technology related to thin plate components:

 (1) Blanking: it includes shearing and blanking.

 (2) Forming: it includes bending, folding, crimping and deep drawing.

 (3) connection: it includes welding, bonding, etc. The structural design of thin plate components should mainly consider the requirements and characteristics of processing technology.

In addition, pay attention to the batch size of components.

Thin plate components are widely used because thin plates have the following advantages:

 (1) Easy to deform, so that various forms of components can be manufactured by simple processing technology.

 (2) Thin plate components are light in weight.

 (3) The processing quantity is small. Due to the high surface quality of the thin plate and the small dimensional tolerance in the thickness direction, the plate surface does not need to be processed.

 (4) It is easy to cut and weld, and can manufacture large and complex components.

 (5) The shape is standard and convenient for automatic processing.