Embosses and beads: stiffening sheet metal without weight
Embosses and beads in sheet metal: bead depth and width limits, the stiffness they add, emboss height for threads and the notes that belong on the drawing.
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Topic hub · 44 guides
Design and CAD
A drawing is a contract. These guides cover the design decisions that survive the shop floor: bend relief and corner relief, hole-to-edge distance, tab and slot, datum strategy, tolerance stack-up, STEP and DXF hand-off, drawing notes, revision control and design for coating, assembly and transport. Written for design engineers who would rather fix it in CAD than in a concession.
Guides in this topic, page 4
Design rules, CAD hand-off, bend allowances, tolerance stacks and the drawing notes that decide whether a part is made right first time.
Hemming sheet metal: folding an edge without cracking
Hemming sheet metal without cracks: hem radius, flange length, hem allowance and the material grades that need an open hem instead of a flat fold.
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Countersinks and dimples for sheet metal: flush fasteners
A countersink needs 0.5 mm of material under the cone. Below that you need a dimple, a thinner screw or a thicker sheet. Here are the numbers.
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Laser-cut hole limits: aspect ratio and minimum diameter
Laser-cut holes stop being round and burr-free below about one diameter deep. Minimum diameter, aspect ratio, taper and spacing by thickness, plus the callout to use.
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Clinching for sheet metal: where it replaces a weld or a rivet
Clinching sheet metal: joint strength, thickness ratio, edge distance and the cases where a spot weld or a rivet is the better joint.
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Design for powder coating: drainage, Faraday and film build
Powder reaches what the gun can see and drains where gravity takes it. Depth-to-width limits, drain sizes and film builds for a part that coats right first time.
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Design for galvanising: vents, drains and distortion
Air out, zinc in, zinc out: vent and drain sizes, distortion limits and thread allowances for sheet metal parts that go through a hot dip galvanising bath.
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Tolerance stack-up for sheet metal: worst case vs RSS
Tolerance stack-up for sheet metal: worst case and RSS side by side, the bend angle term that dominates, and the bias correction RSS usually ignores.
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Louvres for sheet metal: free area, blade angle and stiffness
Louvre design for sheet metal: free area arithmetic, blade angle for rain rejection, blade span limits and the pressure drop at working velocity.
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