@fabworkshq: The thing that makes 6061 strong is the same thing that makes it crack. 🔩⚡ 6061-T6 has been heat treated. That's where the strength and hardness come from, and it's also why it splits when you try to bend it. Here's the mechanism. The outside of any bend has to stretch. Softer alloys handle that fine. Heat treated aluminum would rather crack than elongate, so you get exactly what you see in this video. 7075-T6 behaves the same way, only worse, since it's harder still. 5052-H32 isn't heat treated. It's strain hardened instead, which leaves it softer and far more formable. That's why it's the only aluminum we run through the press brake. You can technically bend 6061 with a large enough inside radius, but our tooling maxes out at a 4 millimeter tip, which isn't gentle enough at the thicknesses where it would matter. The takeaway for your next part: if it has bends, design it in 5052. If it's flat, 6061 and 7075 are both great choices and you get the strength without the problem. fabworks.com #aluminum #rivnut #sheetmetal #fabrication #manufacturing #engineering #lasercutting #dfm #stem #machinist #pressbrake

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Thursday 17 September 2026 22:25:27 GMT