Sheet Metal Chassis

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by mman1506

What are you using to make your lightening holes? Do those flanges around the holes add any rigidity to the chassis?

Thanks

The sheet metal is all cut on a laser cutter. The "flanges" are dimples made from a dimple die. They add enormous strength to the overall chassis.

Originally Posted by Bruceb

What alloy do you all use and what radius do you bend the angles? Looks like a large radius in the pic.
Thanks

The metal is all 2024 T-3 aluminium. Our sponsor said that a 0.25 bend radius should be used for that alloy and thickness. We would stick to 5052 in the future, there were cracks at almost every bend point. The metal was very brittle.

Originally Posted by thefro526

Somewhat on topic-ish.

Did you guys buy your own dimple die set or did a sponsor do them?

Everything was done at the sponsor's shop, laser cutting, bending, and dimpling.

[mman1506]

Could you do all this with a normal sheet metal brake or do you need a press brake?

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by mman1506

Could you do all this with a normal sheet metal brake or do you need a press brake?

Not sure what you mean, but ours was done on a CNC break.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Not sure what you mean, but ours was done on a CNC break.

sorry I meant a manual break like this




versus a hydraulic press break(V shaped Die)