Rectangular curved cone and flatten inventor

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

I am a long time reader here and always found the answer to my questions. In this case however, I need to ask for your expertise.

I have lofted a rectangular cone as in the .dxf and was trying to get the sheet metal dimensions for each of the four sides by using the flatter command in inventor pro 2016. I get an error saying "no bends, nothing to compute". My question is if it's possible to get the flat pattern for such a dimension from invetor? The main dimensions for the loft is given in the picture.

I really appreciate you help here.

Thank you very much for this great forum and for sharing your knowledge!

With kind regards,

Johan

[IgorMir]

Hi Johan,

Here are two files for you to look at. Part1 is a sheet metal part. Part2 is a lofted elbow. I hope you will see why Part2 can not be flattened. But it might be possible to create such a part as a set of separate sheet metal parts. I will put some thoughts into it...

Regards,

Igor.

[Anonymous]

Hi Miro!

Thank you for your reply. I understand that the solid cannot be flattened and I agree that four sides of the cone need to be manufactured sperately and then welded together. What I've tried during the weekend was to make one bend, by lofting two faces along the smaller arc of this cone/horn. I noticed that I can still not flatten the lofted part but if I sweep one face along the arc, it is possible to flatten. Does this have something to do with the thickness of the sheet metal? Attached are the parts for dimensions, loft and sweep cases.

I will make each part in segments as well and see if I can put a bend between each segment and then use the unfold function.

Kind regards,

JohanH