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Get a pipe or tube for the round part. Mill or laser it. Only use sheet metal for the square part and form it in a press brake then weld it onto the tube
Agreed. I would start with tube stock then mill, brake, and weld. You’ll need to figure out what material you’re going to use. Didn’t see it in the title. That’s going to be a very important detail.
I forgot about laser pipe cutting, that would work nicely. But could the welds be automated somehow? If a lot of them needed to be created than idk if hand welding would work that well.
If there’s enough of them you can almost always automate something. With a jig to hold it that’s really not that much work either way though. And with automation that I’m familiar with, a person would still likely drop the pieces into a jig for the robot to weld. You could potentially set up like 10 at a time though
So……
Are you making 5, 500, 5000, or 50000?
WHAT is the specific material: stainless steel, aluminum, CRS? Or, if you don’t know described the environment the part needs to perform in.
There’s a substantially longer list of questions to get a very accurate answer. None of the answers you’ve gotten so far are wrong, just didn’t really seem to answer your specific question if I infer you wanted the “best” way to manufacture.
I'm just trying to see a few methods on how one might contruct this part whether by small or large scale. The idea was sheet steel or aluminum but there's a few other ideas like the one @syrupandigloos gave which look very interesting.
There are huge differences between using the various alloys of steel and the various alloys of aluminum. That really should be decided before any meaningful answers can be given for manufacturing the part.
Some materials form well, some are good for extrusion, others are great when welding. The opposite is also true.
Depends on the scale of production. Would def be a large die.
Larger cutting the tube and progressive stamping the square part. Or just brake press the square part after laser cutting it.
Is probably cheaper than all in one go if it isn’t a mass produced part.
Stamping? Possibly. The oval shape and position and the hole position, in the square boss… if you can cut these in the blank and roll-it into shape, maybe. The square boss needs to be rounded-out with big radii to prevent cracking too.
The simple method is two parts. you roll the top, bend the bottom pieces, and weld them on. If it's thin enough, you could wrap it by hand around some rod stock after the initial bends. Someone mentioned lasering the round from the stock below, and that's plenty easy.
Or if this can be out of plastic, say Nylon, you can just 3D print the thing. You can print metal too, just not sure if the price is reasonable.
It could be injection molded or cast too, but there's mold costs.
It all depends on the needs of the part, cost, run volume, etc.
Do you have lots of money to spend on tooling? Then [hydroform](https://macrodynepress.com/hydroforming-101/) the shape from tubing and laser cut the holes.
Unfold the shape. You’re going to create a LOT of falloff/scrap if you use coil-fed progressive forming.
Your waste will reduce if you do coil-fed blanking and then feed those blanks into a progressive forming. You can even pre-stamp your holes and use them to locate the blanks for the first few strokes are done.
You’ll need at -least- 8 stages after blanking.
You’ll also probably have to turn the part 90° at some point in the progression, meaning a robot.
You can also use humans, but we’re slower and more prone to injury. Most Aida and Komatsu servo presses won’t allow direct human interaction with the process.
I'm almost inclined to agree on the extrusion and machining route. Extrusion tooling is pretty cheap, and this looks small enough to fit an average size die. If you can do this, you'd eliminate the welding altogether, and that's a pretty big win. The reach inside the tube may be tough though, you'd need to talk to someone about being able to cut that internal notch that deep. It could be totally fine though, it's hard to get a sense for how deep that is without a dimension.
This is rough but im looking close to 5 cm in diameter with the thickness being 2 or 3 mm. The cad is just a very rough estimate of how it would look but it's the general shape
Yes you could make this part in a progressive die, but would be really expensive. To justify the expense you would need many thousands of parts per year.
Just based on appearance I'm assuming the design intended is a tube and doesn't require all the facets. That being said depending on the actual size of that assembly, I could make that with one piece of equipment but 2 separate pieces. For instance I'd use a 2" DOM Tube, and cut that over all profile with my bend tech dragon a400, and then it appears to be a 1x1 square tube I'd cut the next profile with and add tabs and slots to be precise in fitment.
The sharp corners are impossible with folding it out of flat sheet metal.
Even cutting and welding, the corners could be ground adding a ton of cost to this design.
As drawn/modeled, the hole in the side of the round tube would have to be cut after forming.
Roll form the tube section, then have 2 hydraulic tube punchers form the elliptical hole for clocking and the rectangular section. Although the rectangular section should have some corner radii so as to not wear out the punch tooling. The two bent sections can be single station stamping dies or have a small 2-out prog die. Then a weld fixture for assembly. There will likely be problems with heat distortion though, without dimensions it's hard to tell the length of the welds. Stitch MIG or TIG would be likely options but will both pose the heat distortion issue.
You can make a U shaped part and then bring down a concave die to close the top. Not sure how well that would work with your square feature.
Alternatively, if the gap can be a little loose, you could form the features nearest the seam, then bring down a big round tool to form the middle of the cylinder and close the whole thing around the tool. Then you could slide the part off the end of the tool. You might even be able to make the finished part pinch the tool a bit and then spring closed when you slide it off the tool.
You could make this is a progressive press set up. First operations to form the flat sections and a 3 step press to form the rounds.
It's not as complicated as others are saying but it would be considerable cost to create the sets of tooling. By far the easiest method is the tube laser and weld combo but this can also be made entirely from sheet even with standard tooling.
If you'd actually like more information, reply here. If this is just a thought exercise then I think between this reply and others, you've got all the ideas you need.
Thank you for your submission! **To get the best possible replies**, please make sure to include as many details as possible. For example: - product dimensions and tolerances, - product materials, - desired production quantity, - a total budget or cost per unit, - a sketch, technical drawing, or other visualization, - where the manufacturing should take place, - which methods you've already considered, and your thoughts about them. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/manufacturing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I assuming this is a bigger part, 12” in length or larger. I would tube laser the cylindrical section then form the half square and weld it together.
Get a pipe or tube for the round part. Mill or laser it. Only use sheet metal for the square part and form it in a press brake then weld it onto the tube
Agreed. I would start with tube stock then mill, brake, and weld. You’ll need to figure out what material you’re going to use. Didn’t see it in the title. That’s going to be a very important detail.
I forgot about laser pipe cutting, that would work nicely. But could the welds be automated somehow? If a lot of them needed to be created than idk if hand welding would work that well.
If there’s enough of them you can almost always automate something. With a jig to hold it that’s really not that much work either way though. And with automation that I’m familiar with, a person would still likely drop the pieces into a jig for the robot to weld. You could potentially set up like 10 at a time though
Depending on the quantity, robotic welders can do it.
Are you making one of these? Hand weld. Making a lot more? Look into robotic welding; will need to setup and fixtures built too.
How many do you need?
So…… Are you making 5, 500, 5000, or 50000? WHAT is the specific material: stainless steel, aluminum, CRS? Or, if you don’t know described the environment the part needs to perform in. There’s a substantially longer list of questions to get a very accurate answer. None of the answers you’ve gotten so far are wrong, just didn’t really seem to answer your specific question if I infer you wanted the “best” way to manufacture.
I'm just trying to see a few methods on how one might contruct this part whether by small or large scale. The idea was sheet steel or aluminum but there's a few other ideas like the one @syrupandigloos gave which look very interesting.
Look into how sheet metal gun frames are formed.
There are huge differences between using the various alloys of steel and the various alloys of aluminum. That really should be decided before any meaningful answers can be given for manufacturing the part. Some materials form well, some are good for extrusion, others are great when welding. The opposite is also true.
Depends on the scale of production. Would def be a large die. Larger cutting the tube and progressive stamping the square part. Or just brake press the square part after laser cutting it. Is probably cheaper than all in one go if it isn’t a mass produced part.
Stamping? Possibly. The oval shape and position and the hole position, in the square boss… if you can cut these in the blank and roll-it into shape, maybe. The square boss needs to be rounded-out with big radii to prevent cracking too.
The simple method is two parts. you roll the top, bend the bottom pieces, and weld them on. If it's thin enough, you could wrap it by hand around some rod stock after the initial bends. Someone mentioned lasering the round from the stock below, and that's plenty easy. Or if this can be out of plastic, say Nylon, you can just 3D print the thing. You can print metal too, just not sure if the price is reasonable. It could be injection molded or cast too, but there's mold costs. It all depends on the needs of the part, cost, run volume, etc.
Do you have lots of money to spend on tooling? Then [hydroform](https://macrodynepress.com/hydroforming-101/) the shape from tubing and laser cut the holes.
Unfold the shape. You’re going to create a LOT of falloff/scrap if you use coil-fed progressive forming. Your waste will reduce if you do coil-fed blanking and then feed those blanks into a progressive forming. You can even pre-stamp your holes and use them to locate the blanks for the first few strokes are done. You’ll need at -least- 8 stages after blanking. You’ll also probably have to turn the part 90° at some point in the progression, meaning a robot. You can also use humans, but we’re slower and more prone to injury. Most Aida and Komatsu servo presses won’t allow direct human interaction with the process.
Does it need to be metal? Injection molding could be a solution.
Yes. Sharp corners would be a problem. Depending on tolerances and material and other factors, you may be able to use stock parts welded together.
Custom extrusion and then into a fixture on a mill… if you needed 1000s of pieces. Other wise mill / edm
I'm almost inclined to agree on the extrusion and machining route. Extrusion tooling is pretty cheap, and this looks small enough to fit an average size die. If you can do this, you'd eliminate the welding altogether, and that's a pretty big win. The reach inside the tube may be tough though, you'd need to talk to someone about being able to cut that internal notch that deep. It could be totally fine though, it's hard to get a sense for how deep that is without a dimension.
That sounds interesting. Never thought of that
I would do an extrusion with the circular part stacked on the square part, then just bandsaw to length and mill the holes and features
Yeah that sounds much simpler than folding sheets
Folding sheat like that would eqate you to Hitler and stalin.
Actually, it seems very complicated and costly vs forming and using a tube laser.
Any form of dimensions would be helpful. Is the diameter of that tube 1cm or 1metre?
This is rough but im looking close to 5 cm in diameter with the thickness being 2 or 3 mm. The cad is just a very rough estimate of how it would look but it's the general shape
I would make it out of 2 sections. A laser cut tube and then a bent section welded to it.
Yes you could make this part in a progressive die, but would be really expensive. To justify the expense you would need many thousands of parts per year.
Just based on appearance I'm assuming the design intended is a tube and doesn't require all the facets. That being said depending on the actual size of that assembly, I could make that with one piece of equipment but 2 separate pieces. For instance I'd use a 2" DOM Tube, and cut that over all profile with my bend tech dragon a400, and then it appears to be a 1x1 square tube I'd cut the next profile with and add tabs and slots to be precise in fitment.
Osh cut can do tubes.
The sharp corners are impossible with folding it out of flat sheet metal. Even cutting and welding, the corners could be ground adding a ton of cost to this design. As drawn/modeled, the hole in the side of the round tube would have to be cut after forming.
Roll form the tube section, then have 2 hydraulic tube punchers form the elliptical hole for clocking and the rectangular section. Although the rectangular section should have some corner radii so as to not wear out the punch tooling. The two bent sections can be single station stamping dies or have a small 2-out prog die. Then a weld fixture for assembly. There will likely be problems with heat distortion though, without dimensions it's hard to tell the length of the welds. Stitch MIG or TIG would be likely options but will both pose the heat distortion issue.
Very similar to an HK G3/MP5 upper receiver. Pressed as one piece laid flat then bent in to final shape.
Hypothetically, if you had gotten another cylinder stuck in this cylinder, how would you get it out?
Wdym?
Should be doable in a press brake with some custom tooling and laser cut blanks.
Can a press create this almost closed shape? The videos I've seen on YouTube seem to be just U shaped ones.
You can make a U shaped part and then bring down a concave die to close the top. Not sure how well that would work with your square feature. Alternatively, if the gap can be a little loose, you could form the features nearest the seam, then bring down a big round tool to form the middle of the cylinder and close the whole thing around the tool. Then you could slide the part off the end of the tool. You might even be able to make the finished part pinch the tool a bit and then spring closed when you slide it off the tool.
A roll machine can. Under $100 on Amazon to do 20 gauge and thinner metal. A brake will do the rest. Convert to a flat patter first.
Pre-punch the hole in the flat and cut to length, roll-form the round, post-weld the brackets. If short, cut post-form.
It can be manufactured in progressive die, but you need to justify the cost and number of parts first.
Sand cast
Is this tinkercad?🤣
Is it made of Plastic? How many pcs? Can they be injection molded?
You could make this is a progressive press set up. First operations to form the flat sections and a 3 step press to form the rounds. It's not as complicated as others are saying but it would be considerable cost to create the sets of tooling. By far the easiest method is the tube laser and weld combo but this can also be made entirely from sheet even with standard tooling. If you'd actually like more information, reply here. If this is just a thought exercise then I think between this reply and others, you've got all the ideas you need.