In a series of posts we are going to review the most important

sheet metal design terminology — Bend Allowance, Bend

Deduction and K-Factor.
In sheet metal bending process when metal is bent the material
along the inner bend radius is going to undergo compression and
the material along the outer bend radius will be stretched. The
line where the transition from compression to stretching occurs is
called the neutral axis or the neutral sheet. The neutral axis is
where neither the material stretches nor compressed. Hence, the
length of the neutral axis stay the same before and after bending
operation. The location of the neutral axis varies and is based on
the material’s physical properties and its thickness. It is important
to know the location of the neutral axis for a specific sheet as we
do all our calculations based on the neutral axis to calculate flat
patterns. The location of the neutral axis for a specific sheet is
defined by a factor called K-Factor.

K-Factor
K-Factor is a ratio that represents the location of the neutral axis
with respect to the thickness of the sheet metal part and
depends on material, thickness and bend radius. K-Factor (K)
can be defined as follows:

Where t is the distance from inside face to the neutral sheet

and T is the sheet thickness (Figure 1). In practice, K-Factor is
used when you don’t know the process or machine that is going
to be used to bend the sheet.
 Figure 1: Neutral axis of a bended sheet

Bend Allowance
The Bend Allowance (BA) is the arc length of the bend as
measured along the neutral axis of the material. Understanding
the Bend Allowance and consequently the Bend Deduction of a
part is a crucial first step to understanding how sheet metal parts
are fabricated.
When the sheet metal is put through the process of bending the
metal around the bend is deformed and stretched. As this
happens you gain a small amount of total length in your part. The
Bend Allowance is defined as the material you will have to add to
the initial length of your flat sheet in order to arrive at the length
of formed part. As it was mentioned before the length of the
neutral axis doesn’t change after the bending. So the following
equation is valid at all times:

Initial Length = Leg Length 1 + BA + Leg Length 2

 Figure 2: Bend Allowance

Bend Deduction
On the other hand, when you are trying to develop a flat pattern
you will have to make a deduction from your desired part size to
get the correct flat size. The Bend Deduction is defined as the
material you will have to remove from the total length of your
flanges in order to arrive at the flat pattern. To calculate the Ben
Deduction, we can rewrite the previous equation as:

Initial Length = Leg Length 1 + BA + Leg Length 2

 Initial Length = ( Flang Length 1 - OSSB)  + BA +
( Flang Length 2 - OSSB)

Initial Length = Flang Length 1  + Flang Length 2 -

(2*OSSB - BA)

The last term of the previous equation is called the Bend

Deduction which is the difference between the Bend Allowance
and twice the outside setback.

Bend Deduction = 2*OSSB - BA

Figure 3: Outside Setback (OSSB)

Calculating Bend Allowance and Bend

Deduction using K-Factor
Bend Allowance and Bend Deduction can be calculated using
the K-Factor as follows: