aluminium and steel sheeting thickness?

[VvvvvV]

I want to get some perforated aluminium sheeting about 1 mm thickness with 3.5 mm holes to bend into a rigid 1'/ 30cm wide case for some electronics.

http://www.wovenwire.co.uk/Images/la...ndholeperf.jpg
http://www.finemeshmetals.co.uk/perforated.htm

with perforated metal sheeting, the open area is about 40%, so it is that much easier to bend around and it is easy to fold straight lines.

with steel and aluminium, what thickness of the material is strong enough to make electronics casing and easy enough to bend?

do I have to buy some special cutting tools?

[eduard]

Hello,
Bending perforated material may be easy but you have to take care that the holes are at the same distance to the bending line otherwise it will be hard to have the same angle at the complete distance. also bended perforated can be rough at the edges. I would suggest a plate with just some square or rectangular holes that can be closed by small, perforated plates from the inside or just plates with holes for the components to be attached at that spot. try to imagine how to make a 45 mm round hole in a perforated plate. Get the main frame bended and welded by a professional and change the plates whenever there is a modifacation. 1mm alu will be difficult to weld better use1.5 or 2 mm stainless steel. succes

[AndrewT]

Hi,
perforated sheet is easy to bend along the line of the hole centres.

It is very difficult to bend between the holes or part way from the hole centre lines. Even with a sheet folder it is difficult to fold away from the hole centre line.

1mm perforated aluminium will easily hold it's own weight on a horizontal panel upto about 300mm square, particularly when the downstands add to the stiffness of the panel.

Aluminium is available in various strength alloys and hardnesses.
The softer grades will deform if force is applied to any flat panel and it will be quite difficult to get back to flat. Most perforated sheets whether steel or aluminium in any of the grades will suffer this deformation weakness.

But it does look good if internal light sources (valves or LEDs) can shine through.