The Process of Vee Grooving in Metal

• 06-12-2023
• Featured Products

The process of vee grooving is used prior to folding to produce bends in sheet metal which result in a very small radius on the outside of the bend and no radius at all on the inside. It is often used in decorative sheet metal applications where close fitting panel joints are visually appealing, as well as in catering applications where a joint with little or no gap is a more hygienic solution.

As well as standard materials, such as stainless steel and aluminium, the process also works well with coated and painted materials, as the external bend radius is small and is less likely to distort coatings or cause surface cracking in paint.

Products which benefit from vee grooving

Common applications include decorative steel panels, lift interiors, architectural fabrications and commercial kitchen equipment. In short, it is most suited to decorative applications where the removal of material at the point of bend doesn’t have a detrimental effect on the integrity of the product but the superior bend finish improves the aesthetics of the finished item.

The grooving process

A vee grooving machine works by clamping the sheet metal material to the machine bed and machining the grooves using a series of cutters each of which makes the groove progressively deeper until the desired depth is reached. The cutting head which holds the cutters moves in the X and Y axes allowing the machine to perform multiple grooves without repositioning the material. Vee groovers typically work with material of up to 6mm thick and at groove depths of up to 50% of the material thickness.

The bending process

The angle of the cutter dictates the angle of the vee which is removed from the material and is selected according to the desired bending angle. In addition to the bending angle, an allowance is made for springback; for example with a 90 degree bend you might allow an extra 2 degrees in the vee groove. With the folding process itself, the part is bent using a standard air bending process, using a bending punch and vee die.

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