• ENGINEERING DESIGN TIPS
  • Rule of Thumb for Section Design
  • Living Plastic Hinge
  • Design for Machined Parts
  • Designing with Inflection Points
  • Torsional Loading
  • Folding Sheet Metal
  • Nuts and Bolts
  • Sheet Metal Forming
• ENGINEERING ANALYSIS TIPS
  • Designing for Hertzian Contact
  • Welding: Bigger Better?
  • Designing for Impact Loads
  • Machine Bracket Re-Design
  • Mesh Refinement on Re-Entrant Corners

If multiple returns are desired on a sheet metal pressing, a good rule of thumb is to make each return twice as long as the previous one as shown in the example picture. This allows good clearance between the blade and the return as folding is progressed.

With experience and tooling such as a joggled blade this ratio can be reduced somewhat, but designing components to be made as simply as possible is always good practice. As E. F. Schumacher put it:

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

“Rocklabs have designed these machines from first principles, and have been greatly aided in the success of these machines by Greg and his team at Motovated Design and Analysis Ltd.
      
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- Ross Garrick, Technical Services Manager, Rocklabs Limited