[LWJ]

Well, maybe. Maybe not.

Great idea on the relief cuts, that will solve a significant issue, waviness on the web. See below.

In a past career I sold about $30 million a year of fabricated aluminum extrusion. All 6000 series: 6061, 6063, and 6005.

You know what conventional wisdom would say? It won’t work. (And, I think that there is a large smidge of wisdom here.)

But, how do people bend aluminum all the time and pull it off?

You got me. But they do.

In a perfect world, 6063 T4 (different alloy, different heat treat) is the material of choice. It has far lower mechanical strength. And we did bend some of this. Also, we bent up some of the 6061/6005 prior to any heat treat for some pretty cool bike frames. But, I wasn’t involved in ANY of that.

So the answer is to either purchase some material with less strength or modify readily available material into such. (Using heat to reduce the mechanical strength). Also, in your case, it really may simply bend without any reduction of mechanical properties. A good roller as shown above may be perfect. Not sure.

Then, there is the bending. The web being bent on the thin plane, should be fine. But, the web that gets stretched or compressed will be the challenge. If it is just stretch, it won’t be so hard as long as the radius is not too tight. If compressed, it can get wavey. A die set that captures and tightly holds the web will help. (Yay! Relief cuts!)

I haven’t worked in the industry for over two decades, so my recollections are not the best. Also, I am not a metallurgist or engineer so my description isn’t very precise. But you should get the idea.

For the places I worked, bending extrusion was something that the factory really stayed away from as much as possible. It was a very finicky process. So, it may or may not work. I do think with a jig/roller set up and some heat, you should be able to pull this off. And, you may be able to make it happen just from the relief cuts!

Also, I am happy to chat if you think I can lend insight.

Have fun and good luck!