Is there an easy way to change K Factor and inside radius but keep overall dimensions in sheet metal?

[HDEAR]

Hi all,

I'm in a bind. I have a project we're doing in Australia and was getting about 180 odd panels made in NZ and shipping over. Due to the shipping shemozzle caused by the Wuhan Flu pandemic, I now have to get the panels made in Australia.

The problem is there are 19 different panel sizes/shapes and I need to change all these panels in my model for 2.00mm Galv with a K Factor of 0.33 and inside radius of 2.00mm to a K Factor of 0.5 and inside radius of 2.95mm.

That's over a day and a half's work to manually change everything and resize all the different panels, most of which have at least 6 folds, not to mention heaps of holes ( lucky I used cut cylinder instead of Round s/m profile ) 

So all you clever people, is there a short cut, or trick or special tool I can use so that I don't have to resize all these panels yet change the K factor and inside radius to what the Ozzies require?

Thanks,

Harley

[rsaucier]

Harley,

If your panels are already being cut to a specific size, what is the reason for having to change them now?

RJ

[SSIMMONS]

4 minutes ago, rsaucier said:

Harley,

If your panels are already being cut to a specific size, what is the reason for having to change them now?

RJ

It sounds like a supply issue with getting the panels through customs from NZ to Aussie Land. The change in K factor causes the unfolded pattern to change do to the difference in expansion/ contraction of material upon bending. So they were designed for the shop he is used to using to break his plates and now he has to outsource to avoid customs from the Flu. So long as the material costs are not going up on that side of the pond and labor is roughly the same you should be fine. Unfortunately I do not have a great suggestion for you. I personally would probably build the new ones on top of the old ones with an updated k-factor and bend radius. Not a good answer though, I hope someone can help you out!

 

-Spencer

[HDEAR]

Thanks Spencer,

That's correct. to gain the accuracy we require, we have to go with the K Factor and IR factor that the Laser Cut/Fold shop works with.

And you came up with the same solution as I have so far, make a copy and work it to the same overall size.

Now for your 'Down-under geography lesson'. You guys have  'The Pond', which we all know is the water between USA and England. Here, we have 'The Ditch", which is the sea between NZ and OZ ( the Tasman sea ). As for pronunciation, we think we pronounce The Ditch how you pronounce 'switch'. The Ozzies pronounce it The 'Deetch' - sort of like you say Peach. The Ozzies think us Kiwis pronounce it like 'The Dutch'.  There ya go, a little quirk about like down-under.

[Malcolm Crowe]

Hi Harley,

It's possible to change the Bend Radius and K-Factor of all Sheet Metal parts in a scene using "Global Parameters", provided that the parts have been created with the necessary parameters to begin with. However, you need to be aware that when the Bend Radius changes there will be length changes where regular "Smooth Bends" are used; which will then require manual adjustment. If "In Bends" or "Out Bends" are used instead then their alignment isn't affected by Bend Radius changes (in the case of 90 degree bends).

In the attached video I have demonstrated the basic concept. Let me know if you think Global Parameters could be beneficial in your application.

Malcolm

[HDEAR]

Thanks Malcolm,

This is very interesting. I noted that the 'Smooth bend' moved when the design variations were applied. I use smooth bends almost exclusively so I was having to resign to using in our out bends and wondered what happened if you added extra bends.

To make sure I had the 3 sheet metal parts sitting flush with each other to easily detect what changes there would be, I used the bend's circular point to set the distances and to be honest I don't know why I used that method instead of pulling the point along and shift/click to the next part but I just did. 

An unexpected, but rewarding thing happened! By controlling the set point distances, all the bend types stayed in the same dimensional shape! See video.

So, this could possibly mean that for existing drawings where I may need to change these factors because of different laser cut/fold suppliers, using your Global parameter set up along with setting the point distances would probably be the quickest way to modify and change things

The challenge now is how to set up my existing sheets with those global parameter variations and exchange the existing sheet properties over