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MECHANICAL & MOTION SYSTEMS
Following DFM Guidelines for Working with Sheet Metal
Engineers can turn out sheet-metal designs that are both highly functional and easy to
make by following Design for Manufacturing principles.
Kashyap Vyas
SEP 21, 2016
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Engineers designing sheet-metal enclosures and assemblies often end up redesigning them so
they can be manufactured. In fact, research suggests that manufacturers spend 30% to 50% of
their time fixing errors and almost 24% of those errors are related to manufacturability. The
reason behind these preventable engineering errors is usually the wide gap between how
sheet-metal parts are designed in CAD systems and how they are actually fabricated on the
shop floor. Many engineers developing 3D models for sheet-metal products are unaware of the
fabrication tools used to form the part or product, and instead design models for an “ideal”
world.
In the ideal world, everything is perfect. Tolerances and allowances are exact, and there’s no
need to add any feature or change the design to accommodate the shop floor or real-world
material behavior. But the truth is, numerous factors including chamfers at the edges, collars
near hole, and spaces between drilled holes matter in the sheet metal world.
This gap between the ideal and real-world sheet-metal design usually proves costly. The
overflowing engineering change orders (ECOs), fixing the design errors, and sending revisions
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back to the shop floor turns into a vicious cycle, one that is often difficult to break.
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Ideal World leads to Real World
Closing this gap is critical. Fortunately, it’s possible if companies and engineers adopt a
Design for Manufacturability (DFM) strategy. With DFM, designers can consider important
manufacturability factors while developing sheet-metal designs. This reduces the possibility of
errors and ECOs, and fills the void between ideal and real world. A DFM strategy focuses on
simplifying designs and reducing the parts counts. It suggests standardizing parts so they can
be used over and over in different applications. DFM also provides insights on developing
designs that are easier to manufacture.
DFM Tips for Sheet Metal
In a sheet-metal design, specifying hole sizes, locations, and their alignment is critical. It is
always better to specify hole diameters that are greater than the sheet’s thickness (T). Hole
diameters less than the sheet thickness result in higher punch loading, longer burnish in the
holes, and excessive burr. It also leads to slug-pulling when withdrawing the punch, which
ultimately affects the life of both punch and metal sheet. Spacing between holes also matters.
It should be at least two times the sheet thickness (2T), if not more. Distance between holes
ensures strength of the metal and prevents holes from deforming during the bending or
forming processes.
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In cases where holes must be near the edge, the minimum space between the edge and holes
should be at least the sheet thickness (T). Also, spaces between pierced holes and bends
should accommodate the bend radius (H) and be far enough from the bend. Usually, the
preferred distance between holes and a bend is 1.5 times the sheet thickness plus the bend
radius (1.5T+H). Supplying 3D models without considering these factors increases the chance
of change orders from the factory floor.
It is common to receive designs for sheet-metal parts with modeling mistakes regarding bends
and fillets, especially when several vendors are involved. This can lead to formed parts looking
different than the models they are based on.
Engineers designing sheet-metal parts should understand the importance of bend relief and
how it helps avoid torn metal and that features like beads and flanges serve specific purposes.
They reduce the spring-back effect and add stiffness to the final part or product. (Spring-back
is the unwanted tendency of sheet metal to retain or go back to its original flat form after the
forming process.) Features such as collars near pierced areas also serve a purpose. They
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strengthen the metal and let it withstand higher loads. Neglecting these features not only
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invites ECOs and extends fabrication times, it also significantly increases material scrap.
Bend relief and collars near pierced areas strengthen sheet-metal parts.
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Grain structure in the metal sheet is critical for avoiding cracks in sheet-metal parts with lugs
or tabs that are cut on three sides and bent in or out. Other components are often mounted or
clamped to them. The engineer modeling the part needs to understand the grain structure of
the metal coil that will be used. Lugs formed parallel to the grain direction usually tend to
form cracks.
There might be instances in some complex product designs when this rule of thumb might not
apply. Still, the recommended practice is to form lugs perpendicular or at an angle less than
45 deg. towards the grain direction. It is likely that an engineer would be unaware of this
factor while developing the model. Communicating with the fabricator is key.
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Lugs should be perpendicular or less than 45 deg. toward the grain direction.
Designers often deal in the ideal world when specifying tolerance values. However, in the real
world, numerous factors affect tolerances. For example, the part’s function or feature, as well
as the material type, temper, and thickness affect tolerance specifications. Moreover,
engineers must consider the fabrication process that will convert the sheet metal into a part
and the die accuracy and its wear during the punching operation to ensure tolerances are
accurate.
From the fabricator’s point of view, the punch-to-die clearance is critical because small
clearances lead to increased burr height and slug pulling, and wears out the punch
prematurely. In such cases, the engineer’s tight tolerances increase manufacturing cost.
Regular clearance is an exact clearance between die and the punch and is used, but it
prematurely wears out the punching too. Engineered clearance, which is slightly larger than
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the regular clearance is preferred because it extends the punch life. Although holes punched
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with engineered clearance have slightly bigger diameters, damage to the punch is greatly
reduced.
Here are some other sheet-metal DFM features:
Bends at edges reduce the likelihood of metal tearing.
Putting chamfers at corners and beads on bends increases stiffness and reduces the spring-
back effect.
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Collars increase the stiffness around pierced areas.
Coining and embossing around flared holes improves a part’s strength and its ability to
maintain its flatness.
Benefits of DFM
Designers and engineers who adhere to the DFM guidelines strive for sheet-metal products
with minimal part counts that are relatively easy to produce and assemble. The products are
also less expensive and the possibilities of errors and rework are reduced.
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Minimizing part count: Part counts can be shrunk by incorporating the functions of two or
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more parts into a single part. To do this, designers must ask themselves the following
questions:
• Do the parts move relative to each other?
• Do the parts need electrical or thermal insulation?
• Do the parts need to be made of different materials?
• Does combining the parts interfere with assembly of other parts?
• Will combining parts complicate maintenance?
If the answer to all of these questions is ‘No,’ then a single part may perform several functions.
This concept of theoretical minimum number of parts was first proposed by Boothroyd (1982)
and is widely practiced by engineers and manufacturers across the globe. Through this
approach, Dell Computer Corp. saved an estimated $15 million by redesigning a computer
chassis so it could be used in several lines of PCs. And the part count went down by 50% and
assembly time decreased by 32%.
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Ease of assembly: This is a critical consideration for sheet-metal products. Engineers
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should strive to develop parts that insert into one another easily and intuitively and always
with the proper orientation. Self-locking features contribute to short assembly times and
lower parts counts.
Usually, it is a good practice to design the first part large and wide to ensure the stability and
then assemble smaller parts on top of it. It is also a good practice to design parts in such a way
that they can be assembled from one direction, rather than multiple directions, which extends
assembly times further.
Ease of manufacturing: Engineers should know the manufacturing capabilities available to
them and the limitations of those capabilities. This means designers should understand the
processes, as well as the materials compatible with them and their production volumes. Here
are some other assembly-related DFM tips:
• Use near-net shapes for molded parts to reduce machining and processing.
• Simplify fixturing by providing large mounting surfaces and parallel clamping surfaces.
• Prevent parts from breaking easily by not giving them sharp corners or points.
• Thin walls, webs, deep pockets and deep holes should be avoided so parts will withstand
clamping and machining without distorting.
• Engineers should know what standard cutters, drill-bit sizes, and other tools are available in
the shop before designing sheet-metal parts.
• Avoid unnecessary features as they slow production and increase machining times and cost.
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It is common for large fabrication units to outsource design to engineering service providers
so they can focus on core activities. However, selecting the right partner helps avoid further
widening of the gap between the ideal and real worlds. Work with partners willing to
collaborate, interested in knowing more about manufacturing processes, and involved in
developing sheet metal products. Look for firms that have past experience of successful
projects and the needed resources before handing over a design task. This will ensure that
ECOs are few and the product is brought to market faster.
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Tips for Making Sheet-Metal Parts
SEP 22, 2017
Mechanical & Motion Systems
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MECHANICAL & MOTION SYSTEMS
Flaws in Diamonds Become Pressure Sensors
Scientists at Berkeley Lab convert diamonds’ atomic aws into sensors.
Stephen Mraz 1
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p
DEC 17, 2019
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Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have looked for ways to determine
how the properties of electronic and optical materials can be harnessed to develop
ultrasensitive sensors for measuring electric and magnetic fields. Their solution? Turning the
natural atomic flaws inside diamond anvils into sensors.
Since their invention more than 60 years ago, diamond anvil cells have let engineers recreate
extreme pressures such as those deep inside the Earth’s mantle, or to enable chemical
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extreme pressures such as those deep inside the Earth s mantle, or to enable chemical
reactions that can only be triggered by intense pressure, all within the confines of a laboratory
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apparatus that can be safely held in the palm of your hand.
To develop new, high-performance materials, scientists need to understand how useful
properties, such as magnetism and strength, change under such harsh conditions. But often,
measuring these properties with enough sensitivity requires a sensor that can withstand the
crushing forces inside a diamond anvil cell.
At left, a natural diamond glow under UV light owing to its various nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers. At right, a
schematic depicts the diamond anvils in action, with NV centers in the bottom anvil. The NV sensors glow a
brilliant shade of red when excited with laser light. By probing the brightness of this uorescence,
researchers could see how sensors responded to small changes in their environment.
Norman Yao
At the atomic level, diamonds are carbon atoms bound together in an almost perfect
tetrahedral crystal. But when diamonds form, some carbon atoms get bumped out of their
“lattice site”. When a nitrogen atom impurity trapped in the crystal sits adjacent to an empty
site, an atomic defect called a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center forms. Over the last decade,
scientists have used NV centers as sensors to measure the magnetism of a single protein, the
electric field from a single electron, and the temperature inside a living cell, explains Berkley
Lab scientist Norman Yao.
To take advantage of the NV centers’ intrinsic sensing properties, Yao and colleagues
engineered a thin layer of them directly inside the diamond anvil so they could get a quick
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glimpse of what goes on inside the high-pressure chamber.
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After creating a layer of NV center sensors a few hundred atoms thick inside a one-tenth-carat
diamond, the researchers tested the NV sensors’ ability to measure pressure inside the
diamond anvil cell’s high-pressure chamber.
The sensors glow a brilliant shade of red when excited with laser light. Looking into the
brightness of this fluorescence, researchers could see how the sensors responded to small
changes in their environment, and what they discovered surprised them: The NV sensors
suggested that the once-flat surface of the diamond anvil began to curve in the center under
pressure.
“They had known about this effect for decades but were accustomed to seeing it at 20 times
the pressure, where you can see the curvature by eye,” Yao says. “Remarkably, our diamond
anvil sensor could detect this tiny curvature at even the lowest pressures.”
There were other surprises, too. When a methanol/ethanol mixture they squeezed in the anvil
underwent a glass transition from a liquid to a solid, the diamond surface turned from a
smooth bowl to a jagged, textured surface. Mechanical simulations confirmed the result.
“This is a fundamentally new way to measure phase transitions in materials at high pressure,
and we hope this will complement conventional methods that use powerful X-ray radiation
from a synchrotron ,” says lead researcher Satcher Hsieh.
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In another experiment, the team used its array of NV sensors to capture a magnetic
“snapshot” of iron and gadolinium, both magnetic metals.
Scientists have long known that compressing iron and gadolinium can alter them from a
magnetic phase to a nonmagnetic phase, an outcome of what scientists call a “pressure-
induced phase transition”. In the case of iron, the researchers directly imaged this transition
by measuring the depletion of the magnetic field generated by a micron-sized bead of iron
inside the high-pressure chamber.
This diamond anvil cell compressing a sample between two opposing anvils, creating pressures greater
than those at the center of the Earth.
Marilyn Sargent
In the case of gadolinium, the researchers took a different approach. That’s because the
electrons inside gadolinium “happily whiz around in random directions,” and this chaotic
electron motion generates a fluctuating magnetic field the NV sensor can measure.
The researchers noted that the NV center sensors can flip into different magnetic quantum
states in the presence of magnetic fluctuations, much like how a compass needle spins in
different directions when a bar magnet is waved near it.
The engineers postulated that by timing how long it took the NV centers to flip from one
magnetic state to another, they could characterize the gadolinium’s magnetic phase by
measuring the magnetic “noise” emanating from the gadolinium electrons’ motion.
Researchers Satcher Hsieh (left) and Chong Zu tune the laser of their imaging system. When excited by laser
light nitrogen vacancy centers emit photons, and their brightness tells researchers something about the
local environment they are sensing.
Marilyn Sargent
They found that when gadolinium is in its non-magnetic phase, its electrons are subdued, and
its magnetic field fluctuations are therefore weak. Subsequently, the NV sensors stay in a
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single magnetic quantum state for a long while—nearly a hundred microseconds. Conversely,
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when the gadolinium sample changed to its magnetic phase, the electrons moved around
rapidly, causing the nearby NV sensor to swiftly flip to another magnetic quantum state.
This sudden change provided clear evidence that gadolinium had entered a different magnetic
phase, Hsieh said, adding that the researchers’ technique let them pinpoint magnetic
properties across the sample with submicron precision, as opposed to averaging them over the
entire high-pressure chamber a la previous studies.
The researchers hope that this “noise spectroscopy” technique will give engineers a new tool
for exploring phases of magnetic matter that can be used as to find smaller, faster, and less-
expensive ways to store and process data in next-generation ultrafast spintronic devices.
Now that they’ve demonstrated how to engineer NV centers into diamond anvil cells, the
researchers plan to use their device to explore the magnetic behavior of superconducting
hydrides—materials that conduct electricity without loss near room temperature at high
pressure, which could revolutionize how energy is stored and transferred.
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