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HOW TO MAKE TOP-HATS:
Square-sided top-hats can be made as shown below:
If the profile is more than 98mm wide then the standard clampbar
can be used.
For profiles between 50mm and 98mm wid e (or wid er ) t he
Narrow Clampbar can be used.
A very narrow top-hat can be made using an auxiliary square bar as
shown below on the right.
When using these techniques the machine will not have its full
bending thickness capacity and thus sheetmetal up to about 1mm
thick only can be used.
Also, when using a square bar as auxiliary tooling it will not be
possible to overbend the sheetmetal to allow for springback and thus
some compromise may be necessary.
Tapered top-hats:
If the top hat can be tapered then it can be formed without any special
tooling and the thickness can be up to the full capacity of the machine
(1.6mm for top-hats over 30mm deep or 1.2mm for top-hats between
15mm and 30mm deep)
The amount of taper needed depends on the width of the top -
hat. Wider top-hats can have steeper sides as shown below.
For a symetrical top-hat all 4 bends should be made to the same
angle.
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