Lobster Back Bend Sheet Metal
One type of industrial component i have been involved with the design and manufacture of is lobster back bends.
Lobster back bend sheet metal. With all segments connected final bend will have everything line up properly. We start off by modeling sheet metal cylinder diameter same as required duct diameter. Ducts have circular cross sectional shape. As with all standard lobster back bends the start and finish segments are basically a normal segment cut in half.
Duct size remains constant between inlet and outlet. Many articles such as cans pipes elbows boxes ducting hoppers etc. This type of duct bend is made up of segments cut from flat sheets or plates rolled into cylindrical parts then assembled. How to develop a pattern for a lobster back bend using parallel line development.
Generally a template is produced from an orthographic drawing when small quantities are required larger quantities may justify the use of press tools and the template will include allowances for bending and seams bearing in mind the thickness of material used. Are manufactured from thin sheet materials. The lobster software module is for the development of tapered segmental bends commonly known as lobster back bends in sheet and plate. Calculator will calculate the necessary dimensions for the construction flat pattern segments lobsterback bend elbow tee piece frustum cone and truncated pipe truncated cone with an accessible vertex and triangulation method.
On heavy plate we bump all the segments together. The location of the segment seam see image of finished bend assists the fabricator in lining up the parts to assemble the bend. It depends how much material frame cut forming welding cost in your shop. On light gauge sheet metal you could bend by hand after rolling.
From 2 to 10 gores permitted.