[dleffler]

Hello everyone! This is my first post on this forum. I have a few questions for people in the know as I am pretty green when it comes to manufacturing. I am in the process of designing a chassis from 1.5mm steel. Most of it is straight forward with the exception of a cutout on the front panel which will house a touch screen display. One cut is all the way through which will allow the main body of the display to go through and the second is a 0.7mm mill cut which will allow the bezel of the display to mount flush. (Display from 4D systems)

My question is, can this all be done on a flat bed CNC mill and bent afterwards without distorting the cuts for the display? If so, what is the minimum clearance from a bend should any given feature be? Or would it be better to mill the display cutout after the chassis has been bent? Is this even possible?!!

I have attached a flat pattern of draft chassis and also a close up 3D render of touch display cutout for reference.

I appreciate anyone who can point me in the right direction to make this a reality. I would also like some recommendations for machinists in Australia who would be interested in making this prototype and eventually do production quantities.

Thanks for your time!

[peteeng]

Hi Dleffer - Where are you in Oz? The images haven't uploaded. But if this is a std sort of steel box a good sheetmetal place will bend it up for you no issues. The holes would be laser cut then the part bent up. With thin steel the inside radius of the bend will be the metal thickness eg 1.5mm. Check material stock as 1.5mm may actually be 1.6mm. In regard to "flaring" ie how close a hole can be to a bend before it distorts depends on the tooling used so you have to ask your sheet shop what their allowances are as each shop has different tooling. In regard to milling the bezel for the display that's possible but why not make the entire part from thinner material, will be much cheaper and 1.5mm steel is really stiff.... eg 0.8mm is a std thickness and this will be close to flush. Milling thin steel will be many $$$ and when you paint the chassis you may lose the bezel as paint will be 0.1mm or thicker. From memory target powder coating thickness is 60-80 micron but in corners it can build higher... Last year I had some parts coated and they put on 0.75mm of paint. It had to be stripped and repainted as things didn't fit. They screwed it up the second time around as well. I don't use that company now....so be specific in your finishing spec...Peter

[dleffler]

Hi Peter! Thanks for your reply. I can see the images as attachments in my original post, so not sure why you can't see them?? I am located in Newcastle. The chassis needs to be very sturdy as it will be housing very heavy power and audio transformers. Yes, I had in the back of my mind about losing the cut dimensions due to powder coating. Might be wise just to add 0.1mm to bezel.