Putting in reinforcements in sheet metal

[careyc]

I have a sheet metal part with a few bends that I would like to have reinforced with offset bracing stamped into the bends. Essentially, it would be like taking a wide and flat tool and offsetting the material perpendicular to the bend. Is there a simple way to model this?

 

[beachcomber]

The only way I can think of is to switch to the part environment, add the material to the inside, then cut away the material on the outside and finally fillet the corners.
To flatten the part you will have to suppress the added part features, so leave them until last.

bc

 

[careyc]

That's exactly the way I ended up putting it in. It works, so I'll stick with it. Thanks for the advice on flattening the part.

Thanks for your help, beachcomber!

 

[donyoung]

hmm, when already in part why not using the 'rib feature'
for this, or did I misinterpret the question?

dy

 

[careyc]

I'm not sure if I would be able to make it appear as if the rib was stamped out of the material rather than extra material that was added in to reinforce the bend.

 

[beachcomber]

don,
You could use the rib feature, but you've got to draw the profile and put in rib thickness etc anyway and then do the cut after to remove material, so I don't think it's any advantage in this case.
If I've understood correctly the feature that carec is trying to achieve is equivalent to a pressed rib of constant depth that runs across a bend in the sheet metal.

bc

 

[donyoung]

beachcomber,

you're right: rib is of no advantage in this case (my imagination
put me on a wrong track). Maybe SE should have such a
feature -- one can see this type of reinforcement quite
often.

dy

 

[cadsman]

To all

http://www.geocities.com/segurucool/smdent.htm

 

[careyc]

Thanks cadsman, for the great resource. That was exactly what I needed.

Thanks to all for the good advice and tips!