Understanding Sheet Metal Springback

A common challenge that arises when designing and manufacturing custom sheet metal parts is springback.

What Is Springback?

Springback refers to the elastic recovery of sheet metal after bending or forming. Once the forming pressure is released, the material reverts partially towards its original shape, which is a natural result of its elasticity.

It’s important to account for this in sheet metal design to ensure the final part maintains its intended shape after bending. Ignoring it can also lead to inaccurate final dimensions.

Key Factors Affecting Springback

First off, different materials react differently under stress. In general, stronger materials tend to have more springback, so it’s something to watch out for when working with them. Things like the material type, the alloy and temper all play a role here too.

Let’s go through some examples – for a bend radius from 0.4 to 2 times the thickness of the material, you’ll want to account for about 2 to 5 degrees of springback for 5052 Aluminum. For Cold Rolled Steel, it’s a bit less, around 1 to 3 degrees. And for 304 Stainless Steel, plan for 3 to 5 degrees.

Thicker materials generally show less springback compared to thinner sheets because they are less likely to undergo elastic recovery.

Larger bend radii usually cause more springback, while smaller radii, which involves sharper bends, result in less. This happens because sharper bends cause more permanent plastic deformation, while larger bends allow for more elastic deformation.

For our stocked materials, where the bend radius is about the same as the material thickness or smaller, it’s safe to allow for around five degrees of springback.

The grain direction relative to the bend line can also cause springback to vary. Bending perpendicular to the grain direction increases accuracy and reduces cracking.

Using Our Services & Tools

If you use our in-house design software, ProtoSpace Designer, all the built-in templates already account for springback. That means you won’t have to worry about it causing issues during manufacturing or beyond!

If you don’t use ProtoSpace Designer, we’ve also got another handy tool for you. Our Template Generator makes it easy for you to create custom CAD templates for over 50 enclosure, bracket and panel styles.

• Go to the My Account portal and select the Template Generator tab
• Enter your specifications
• A blank CAD template will be generated based on your specs
• You can then customize this template in your preferred software
• All templates automatically account for springback, allowing for five degrees where a bend might collide with the part
• Additionally, when you work with us, our designers will make any required changes to your design to account for springback during the approval stage.

With our revolutionary High Velocity Mass Customization (HVMC) model, we allow you to eliminate any latencies with getting custom parts manufactured. This means you’ll accelerate your project velocity and keep your momentum going.

If you have a design ready, use our Instant Quoter tool to get a quote in seconds!