Cross Breaking Sheet Metal

Cross breaks in hvac or duct work design cross breaks are used to stiffen sheet metal.

Cross breaking sheet metal. The cross break is not a geometric entity and does not alter the geometry of the part. Cross breaks are most commonly in an x shape forming a slight pyramid shape in the metal without overly distorting it. A second bend is made across this initial one leaving an x impression on the sheet. A cross break in sheet metal is when multiple obtuse bend angles of approximately 170 are made across a flat section thin metal.

To form the operator marks the bend line on the sheet as a guide then lines it up with punch tip and performs a shallow bend. In most applications this will be sufficient since the distortion on the actual component will be minimal. The reason is that there are too many tweaks in sheet metal that are tooling dependent and do not affect realizable parts. We used the following equipment to produce this video.

The crossing ridges stiffen the face of the metal and help prevent is from buckling under a load. Most design softwares with respectable sheet metal packages will have a specific cross break function creo is more of a solid modeler than a sheet metal package. So on the same page they mention. Cross braking is a technique performed using a press brake.