Metal fabricating and welding glossary - B

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Back gauge

Stop located in the rear of a metal forming or fabricating machine which is used to position the workpiece during an operation.

Back-off

Clearance obtained by removing metal either behind or beyond the cutting edge of a punch or die.

Band sawing

A multipoint cutting process during which a workpiece is advanced into a moving continuous band that has cutting teeth along one edge. Using band sawing, parts may be severed from a workpiece. Band sawing can also produce irregular or curved saw cuts. The band sawing process produces a narrow cut or kerf and fine feed marks and a uniform cutting action.

Photo of band sawing process.

Barrel tumbling

Process in which parts to be deburred are put together with abrasive material into a many-sided barrel and slowly rotated for prolonged periods for the purpose of burr removal.

Bend radius

The inside radius of a bent section or a formed feature.

Bend relief

The clearance notch at an end of a flange to allow bending without distorting or tearing adjacent material.

Bendability

It is defined as the minimum bending radius attainable by a given material.

Bending

A term typically applied to a metal forming process. It is the creation of a formed feature by angular displacement of a sheet metal workpiece. The straining of material, usually flat sheet or strip metal, by moving it around a straight axis lying in the neutral plane. Metal flow takes place within the plastic range of the metal, so that the bent part retains a permanent set after removal of the applied stress. The cross section of the bend inward from the neutral plane is in compression; the rest of the bend is in tension. See forming.

Bending brake or press brake

A form of open-frame single-action press that is comparatively wide between the housings, with a bed designed for holding long, narrow forming edges or dies. Used for bending and forming strip, plate, and sheet (into boxes, panels, roof decks, and so on).

Bending dies

Dies used in presses for bending sheet metal or wire parts into various shapes. The work is done by the punch pushing the stock into cavities or depressions of similar shape in the die or by auxiliary attachments operated by the descending punch.

Bending rolls

Various types of machinery equipped with two or more rolls to form curved sheet and sections.

Blank

In forming, a piece of sheet metal stock from which a product is made. Material, produced in cutting dies, that is usually subjected to further press operations. A workpiece that results from a blanking operation. A pre-cut metal shape for a subsequent press operation.

Blanking

The operation of punching, cutting, or shearing a piece out of stock to a predetermined shape. Die cutting of the outside shape of a part.

Bottoming

Forming operation in which the punch and the die are closed completely on the workpiece.

Bow distortion

Out of flatness condition in sheet material commonly known as oil canning in which, with the edges of the sheet restrained, the center of the sheet can be popped back and forth but cannot be flattened without specialized equipment. This condition is sometimes inherent in the material as received from the supplier and sometimes the result of multiple punching or forming operations.

Brake forming

Press braking is a metal forming process that uses an open-frame single-action press used to bend, blank, corrugate, curl, notch, perforate, pierce, or punch sheet metal or plate using a U-shaped, V-shaped, or channel-shape punch or die set.

Brake press bending

An operation that produces various degree bends when fabricating parts from steel.

Burr

A thin ridge, raised sharp edge, or roughness left on forgings or sheet metal blanks by cutting operations such as slitting, shearing, trimming, punching, blanking, or sawing.

Burring

A common term for debarring or smoothing the rough cut edges of metal.

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