Unbend Parts

[Jett]

Curious if anyone uses Pro to unbend/unfold parts in precision sheetmetal shops? From what I understand, bend tables are applied to a part to generate the bend loss/allowance based on the radius and mtl. If a sheetmetal shop needs to use another bend allowance (k-factor) they must assign their own modified bend table to the part in order for it to unfold to their b.a./k-factor needs.


- if a feature is sketched & dimensioned from a tangent line to the bend radius, the feature moves along with the bend allowance change.?


- can a bend allowance/k-factorvalue be applied to a bend that is not based on the radius & mtl?

 

[AHA-D]

I've only come across one external supplier to trust my flat patterns (not ProE by the way) and that was because their production chief sat right beside me to tell me what to do and what correction factors to apply. With companies having their own shops it can happen that they work with the flat patterns, it can also be that they take your 3D-model and mangle it through their own procedures.


One sheetmetalshop I know starts from the 3D-model and gets their own software to recognise it into sheetmetal. Afterwards they append their ownparameters to each bend to create the flat sheet to start with.


Haven't come across any outsider to use ProE as their standard software. Probably because there are better and more specialised tools around if you're only doing sheetmetal work.


Alex

 

[Asho Pulsar]

Practically the part bend table in proenot exactly matches with the Press brake machine's bend table, even if you adjust the part bend table according to the press brake's bend table which the press brake company provided along with the machine. This is because of the difference in the material properties of the sheetmetalwhich they uses to manufature the particular part.


Though you give the correct k-factor for the material which you gonna use for manufacturing, you could'nt able to achieve the inner/outer radius provided on the particular part that you modeled. So sometimes you have to alter the K-factor value in order to get the development of the part exactly.


One more thing, most of the manufacturing company uses cam software to develop the part or they import the iges file and later they alter the iges file to achieve the correct radius and dimension.
Edited by: Asho Pulsar

 

[Jett]

One of the selling points they offered on the sheetmetal module/package was the ability for a sheetmetal mfg who also uses Pro, to use the flat pattern feature/version of sheetmetal modelsthat wouldeliminate the need for a second CAD system to generate flat patterns. Best I can tell, this is not currently practical.


The k-factor/bend loss must be independent of the mtl & radius and not alter the models geometry when adjusted for the flat pattern feature to behave as advertised. Would love to be proven wrong about this, or at least told this is something they are addressing.

 

[Asho Pulsar]

Hi jett, I am not instigating or addressing anything wrong about our Pro-E. But i faced some problems regrd flatten part developed in Pro-E. I have seen that all the time my press brake opetator use to change the allowance or some value in the CNC press brake machine to get appropriate bends correspond to the developed value.


Later i thought why should the press brake operator do the changes all the time. So i asked him to come and sit with me to make changes in the Proe itself. It worked well. What we have done, we just checked the development dimension for the new part (which is gonna manufature)in the machine first and incorporated the same (development of each and every bend as per CNC press brake machine) in the Pro-E to get the desired results.


Yet i have not mentioned anywhere that ProE is not good regarding this particular section, but it all depends on the material properties of the sheetmetal.
Edited by: Asho Pulsar