Aluminium Composite Panel

what kind of "composite"? If the panel is laminated you probably can't bend it. Laser, plasma or water jet all work. Depending on the thickness and the make up of it the water jet is probably the best bet. If the composite is a lamination with foam or honeycomb core with a skin on both sides, you will have to remove the skin and filler in the bend area and compensate for bend radius.

What is the make up of the panel?

Scooter

No, you can't bend it. That's what makes it particularly well suited to applications where you need extra rigidity with minimum weight.

To form corners though, you can use a router with a triangular bit to cut a groove thru all but the bottom surface. It will easily fold along these lines and a fairly tight radius can be achieved.

Routers also work well for cutting. Standard saws work fine, as well as water jet. Guillotine type cutting is not a good idea, as it will crush the edge.

Depending on what the inner layer is made of, normally laser or plasma cutting is not recommended.

Material spec of aluminum? Some can bend and not fatigue some may not...

It's not really a matter of fatigue specs. Aluminum composite panel is made of two thin sheets of aluminum with another type of material bonded in between. This is the most basic type. There are others that have many more layers. But by its very nature, it is not able to be bent without removing material from the inside (or outside) of the bend. Otherwise, to bend it would require that the bond between layers be broken, thru a sheering action... or ... the layer of aluminum on the outside of the bend would need to stretch, and of course, aluminum isn't particularly elastic.

This may be just a confusion of the actual definition of "aluminum composite panel". But what I've described is what is normally meant when that term is used.

Part of the reason I asked about the composition of the composite is that we work with 3 different composite panels. One is a .010 alu skin with 3/8" aluminum honeycomb and a .03 alu skin. Another is .02 alu/ 1/2" balsa end grain /.02 alu. The 3rd is a .02 alu skin / 3/8" nomex honeycomb and .04 alu skin. We also have some with graphite and kevlar next to the aluminum skins. In addition we have some panels that are .032 2024-t3 bonded to each side of a piece of .125 6063-t5. All are composite panels all need to be worked differently.

'aluminum isn't particularly elastic'

My point illustrated, or instead of shearing you may compress the skin of one side and the internal material and if ductility is sufficient stretch the other side in a bend.

This guy is talking about aluminum composite panel which is a sandwich structure,but not honeycomb panel,top side is pre-painted aluminum sheet,in the middle is always low density Polyethylene core,and the bottom is unpainted aluminum sheet.Normally the bottom and top aluminum sheet have the same thickness.

This material is very easy to be processed.If the quantity is not much,simple hand tools will be qualified.You can use a hard alloy blade to cut.If you want to fold it to form a 90 degrees vertical angle or what,then you need to make a slot about 5-6mm wide at the bottom aluminum sheet,the deeper the slot goes,the easier it can be fold,but remember never slot too deep to reach the front aluminum sheet if you don't want the panel to break,because when you fold it,the front aluminum sheet will break,but the Polyethylene will not!

If you want to bend it to cover column,you don't need to do anything about it,but need a bending machine.

You can go to our website to download the Aluminum Composite Panel catalogue which contains the processing manual if you would like.

And,the last thing,if you bought unqualified Aluminum Composite Panel,you will find big problem in processing such as panel break when bending...

I haven't known anything about the structure you mentioned above yet.Are you talking about the structure from top to bottom like: "aluminum-MDF-EPS foam-aluminum"???

From the bellcomb webpage,it looks like the drawings are for Aluminum Honeycomb Panel,the structure is "aluminum-aluminium or plastic honeycomb core-aluminum".

We are especially doing in the Aluminum Honeycomb Panel,we can frame the edge as the Bellcomb drawings shows.And if you want it to be curved,do you want only one direction to be curved or both two directions to form like half a ball???

You can send email to me keanu916@gmail.com I would like to see what we can do for your solution.

yes , being a sandwich panel it would be "aluminum-MDF-EPS foam- MDF -aluminum"

I will email you, thank you and the thread for all the information.

Aluminium is bending depending how much thickness and flexibility of it. I like to share high quality aluminium composite panels of UK - http://multipaneluk.co.uk.