ACM bending

[Creighton]

Anyone ever try bending ACM with a slip roll or some other mechanism? I'm sure the spring back would be brutal, but curious if it would even bend (without wrinkling) with the composite core. Seems like this would add some unique shape opportunities.

 

[letterman7]

Search on here. Common boxes can be made depending on the thickness of the acm. Easiest method is routing a V-groove through the first layer of aluminum and the core, but not the outer aluminum later, and folding it as such.

 

[Creighton]

Ah no, my apologies I wasn't referring to corners and boxes, I meant to imply radius curvature like through a slip roller, creating a large arc, cylinders, etc. Tiny partial v-grooves might still be necessary, but that would be a huge pain. Wondering if anyone has tried bending like this in a slip roll - ala grizzly: http://www.grizzly.com/products/50-Slip-Roll-16-Gauge/G5771. Fairly exhaustive searching hasn't turned up much. Most of these slip roll presses are rated for rolling a certain gauge of mild steel, but I recall that they'll feed in thicker stuff. I think I saw on some architectural specs that Alucobond or something similar could take a bend with a radius of 10:1 to the thickness of material, suggesting 6mm could be rolled into a cylinder of about 5 inches diameter which seems hard to believe (I would think the inside skin would have to be a wrinkly mess). But I think Alucobond also has a mineral core, and I don't know it is the same as typical ACM.

V-groove through the first layer of aluminum

 

[Gino]

Why......... or better yet, for what ??

 

[FireSprint.com]

You know I have no idea if this would work, but if it did, my guess would be the higher end materials would work better. Architectual panels and such. The higher grade acm has thicker aluminum skin which is less likely to tear.

There are also new steel faced panels many suppliers are carrying. I wonder if that would work better.

 

[Creighton]

I'm feeling particularly motivated to experiment. I'll post some results if we go down this road. As a concept, we're toying with the idea of doing some curved table top displays out of ACM, low volume, probably easier to find something at the trophy store or somewhere, but we also have a learning/shop aspect to our operation. As an extension to this I'm thinking that might be an interesting concept to introduce to a standoff wall mounted sign over a counter. If it works on a friend's slip roll, with some minor modifications, cheapie slip roll / brake machines have some utility for paper cutting and plastic bending, so might be justifiable.

 

[Martin Denton]

I have seen details of rolling acm
On one of the manufacturers websites few y arscago. Think it was reynobond. Will try and dig out a link on it and send it to you It can definitely be done as our multipanel sheets show bending as an option alongside riveting and routing on the polytheism cover sheet

 

[equippaint]

It should roll fine as long as its not an overly aggressive radius.
I wonder how it would react if you heated it a little to get the plastic plaible.

 

[Creighton]

I wonder how it would react if you heated it a little to get the plastic plaible.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. I don't suspect I'd even have to worry about delamination, since they use these things in Phoenix and Dubai and high heat places, they probably have to be designed for a few hundred degrees. Don't have any delusions on my skill level here, but I'm thinking in the right hands there could be some interesting sign concepts here. Or maybe just giant lopsided cylinders.

 

[JTBoh]

just giant lopsided cylinders.

 

[Johnny Best]

I had about #16 of these to install on large poured concrete columns in a parking garage. It is 3mm ACM Maxmetal that was put into a slip roller and bent. It works fine no heating, bends like solid aluminum. Put cast turq. vinyl on after bending with the white cast P. Tapconed pvc strips on column and VHB taped on panel. Just ran my tape measure around the column to get circumference, found the radius and with a large compass drew on paper so I could duplicate column curve when bending. Was over at the parking garage today and remembered this thread so took pic.

 

[Creighton]

Goodness, you are awesome. How in the world could you remember this thread and go to that kind of trouble!? Exactly the type of applications I was figuring there must be a case for.

Thank you. What an awesome forum.

I had about #16 of these to install on large poured concrete columns in a parking garage. It is 3mm ACM Maxmetal that was put into a slip roller and bent. It works fine no heating, bends like solid aluminum. Put cast turq. vinyl on after bending with the white cast P. Tapconed pvc strips on column and VHB taped on panel. Just ran my tape measure around the column to get circumference, found the radius and with a large compass drew on paper so I could duplicate column curve when bending. Was over at the parking garage today and remembered this thread so took pic.

 

[Johnny Best]

I am glad I still have my memory. Glad I could be of help.

 

[Matt M]

I know this is a bit of an old thread, but really hoping for some more details.

suggesting 6mm could be rolled into a cylinder of about 5 inches diameter which seems hard to believe

Creighton did you ever test rolling 6mm? What gauge of steel was the slip roll rated to?

It is 3mm ACM Maxmetal that was put into a slip roller and bent. It works fine no heating, bends like solid aluminum.

Johnny Best what size slip roll did you use on the 3mm ACM?

 

[Johnny Best]

Eastwood 24" Just saw one, 12" at Harbor Freight.

 

[Matt M]

Johnny Best thanks for the quick reply. So you used the Eastwood 24"? That's great news, I expected it to have to be a much heavier-duty slip roll. One of the ACM brands has a video rolling sheets on a massive $40K hydraulic slip roll and I got nervous.