Creep, and Fatigue Data at High and Low Temperatures (118), which was
used to prepare Table 8.23.
You�ll want to carefully monitor the time and temperature of any heating above about 150#F [66#C]. This can be done by marking the metal with heat crayons with known melting points: when the marking starts to run, the metal has reached a benchmark temperature. Unlike steel, heating aluminum doesn�t change its color while the metal is in a solid state, so you can�t gauge the temperature of a piece of aluminum by looking at it, and you don�t want to try by touching it. Most fabricators simply avoid the practice of heating aluminum for cutting or forming. Where aluminum must be heated above 400#F [200#C] in specific areas (such as at welds), the strength reduction is accounted for in structural calculations. Methods for addressing this effect from welding are discussed in Chapter 9. Sheet and plate may be formed by various operations. Roll forming of sheet is used to make cross sections with full-length bends (Figure 3.15), such as for roofing and siding panels produced in large quantities, but it has high initial tooling costs. Press brakes are commonly used to form bends of various configurations. Brake capacity needed to form aluminum sheet and plate can be calculated from capacities given for steel by ratioing by the aluminum yield strength to the steel yield strength. Many commonly used aluminum sheet alloys require less brake capacity than steel. Minimum bend radii for 90# cold bends for some alloy tempers and thicknesses are given in the Aluminum Design Manual, Part VII, Table 6�1. These radii are the smallest recommended in a standard press brake without fracturing and should be verified on trial pieces before production. Minimum bend radii for aluminum are generally greater than those for steel, so you should consider them carefully to avoid cracking (20). For heat-treatable alloys, bending at right angles to the direction that plate or sheet was rolled or extruded helps prevent cracks. For non-heat-treatable alloys, bends should be parallel to the direction of rolling to minimize cracking. Maximum sheet thickness for 180# cold bends (metal to metal) of some alloy tempers is given in the Design Manual, Part VII, Design Aids, Table 6-3, which is useful for designing sections with lockseams, such as that shown in Figure 3.16. For some alloy tempers and thicknesses, ASTM B209 gives the minimum diameter of a pin around which the material can be wrapped 180# without cracking. The fact that a radius is usually required at bends affects cross-sectional dimensions. The sum of the outside dimensions of a bent cross section is different from the sum of the flat lengths (see Figure 3.17). There are two reasons for this difference: the material stretches slightly when bent, and the distance along a radius at the bends is less than the straight line distance to the point of intersection of the flat lengths. The Aluminum Design Manual, Part VI, Table 4, gives values for this difference, called the developed length of a bend. Another method for accounting for the effect of bends on dimensions is the following equation, which also applies to bend angles other than 90#: