MEL 310 – Manufacturing Process Automation
Lecture 3 –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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Billet Plate Sheet
Foil
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Nibbling
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[Link]
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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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