Forming a perforated sheet - Eng-Tips
Jul. 07, 2025
Forming a perforated sheet - Eng-Tips
Someone asked me an interesting question which I did not have an answer for. So naturally, I figured I would ask you guys (and gals).
We take a piece of perforated sheet metal (.149in holes on .in spacing), and draw it into a round shape. So the question is there an easy way to model this so that each of the perforations are (relativly) close to where one would expect them to be after the part is formed?
The attached image shows the cross section of the formed part.
Chris T.
Project Design Analyst
Kohler Co. Engine Division
Using NX7.5 I still am not getting what it is that you're attempting to model. Could you provide at least an image of what the actual part looks like, and if possible, some idea of what the 'perferations' look like? if you're asking what I suspect that you are, you'll probably have to wait until you upgrade to NX 8.5 before you will be able to do this in a reasonable way.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. Forming the part will have no effect on it's weight. All you need to do is figure out what the pre-deformed blank looks like and the weight can easily be determined. The only thing that a perforated 'before & after' results will useful for FEA purposes since the perforations will most likely have on impact on the behavior of the metal during deformation and of course could also help to determine what the appearance of the final part would look like if that appearance was critical for aesthetic reasons.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. Is there an easy way to model this so that each of the perforations are (relativly) close to where one would expect them to be after the part is formed?
Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..
[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green] Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, I got tied up with other things.
Typically, we don't even bother to attempt to model the perforations. From a design standpoint, there really isn't any value in it.
The reason this question is being asked is because of a couple of reasons that others have pointed out. This part is a rotating screen that is at the inlet of the cooling system on a air cooled engine. The purpose of the screen is to block as much debris as possible, but still let as much air pass through as possible.
Our people that handle the analysis of the cooling system performance would prefer if the perforations were in the model. As it is now, they guess the locations. For their purposes, I'm not entirely sure how critical it is for them to have each perforation at it's exact location.
Also, our people that create the service literature from our models have been asking for more realistic models for some time.
Is it a show-stopper if we can't do this? Nah, not really. It would be nice, but I suspect that if it was possible, the model would become quite large and take up quite a bit of computer resources to handle.
Attached is a picture of a similar part.
Chris T.
Project Design Analyst
Kohler Co. Engine Division
Using NX7.5 Can you provide more details ?
( possibly a sample of the perforated sheet and a sample of the shape to follow )
I did a quick and dirty test to see if the Global Shaping feature could do it , and it seems quite promising, See attached image. ( Note that i started with a square perforated sheet which was larger than the shape i wrapped to, i have not tried to wrap a solid in this case.)
The Global Shaping is probably in the "NX_Freeform_2" license which not everybody has.
I can later upload the model, if interest exists. ( This one NX 8.5)
Regards,
Tomas
We take a piece of perforated sheet metal (.149in holes on .in spacing), and draw it into a round shape. So the question is there an easy way to model this so that each of the perforations are (relativly) close to where one would expect them to be after the part is formed?
The attached image shows the cross section of the formed part.
Chris T.
Project Design Analyst
Kohler Co. Engine Division
Using NX7.5 I still am not getting what it is that you're attempting to model. Could you provide at least an image of what the actual part looks like, and if possible, some idea of what the 'perferations' look like? if you're asking what I suspect that you are, you'll probably have to wait until you upgrade to NX 8.5 before you will be able to do this in a reasonable way.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. Forming the part will have no effect on it's weight. All you need to do is figure out what the pre-deformed blank looks like and the weight can easily be determined. The only thing that a perforated 'before & after' results will useful for FEA purposes since the perforations will most likely have on impact on the behavior of the metal during deformation and of course could also help to determine what the appearance of the final part would look like if that appearance was critical for aesthetic reasons.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. Is there an easy way to model this so that each of the perforations are (relativly) close to where one would expect them to be after the part is formed?
Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community..
[green]To the Toolmaker, your nice little cartoon drawing of your glass looks cool, but your solid model sucks. Do you want me to fix it, or are you going to take all week to get it back to me so I can get some work done?[/green] Sorry it's taken me so long to respond, I got tied up with other things.
Typically, we don't even bother to attempt to model the perforations. From a design standpoint, there really isn't any value in it.
The reason this question is being asked is because of a couple of reasons that others have pointed out. This part is a rotating screen that is at the inlet of the cooling system on a air cooled engine. The purpose of the screen is to block as much debris as possible, but still let as much air pass through as possible.
Our people that handle the analysis of the cooling system performance would prefer if the perforations were in the model. As it is now, they guess the locations. For their purposes, I'm not entirely sure how critical it is for them to have each perforation at it's exact location.
Also, our people that create the service literature from our models have been asking for more realistic models for some time.
Is it a show-stopper if we can't do this? Nah, not really. It would be nice, but I suspect that if it was possible, the model would become quite large and take up quite a bit of computer resources to handle.
Attached is a picture of a similar part.
Chris T.
Project Design Analyst
Kohler Co. Engine Division
Using NX7.5 Can you provide more details ?
( possibly a sample of the perforated sheet and a sample of the shape to follow )
I did a quick and dirty test to see if the Global Shaping feature could do it , and it seems quite promising, See attached image. ( Note that i started with a square perforated sheet which was larger than the shape i wrapped to, i have not tried to wrap a solid in this case.)
The Global Shaping is probably in the "NX_Freeform_2" license which not everybody has.
I can later upload the model, if interest exists. ( This one NX 8.5)
Regards,
Tomas
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