Metal finishing Q&As since 1989
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How to increase stiffness of CRCA steel strips?
July 29, 2009
Q. Hello Everybody,
Our Company is into manufacturing of office furniture. We use CRCA
(Cold rolled close Annealed) Steel for pedestals & storages of
0.8 mm thick strips.
The problem is our pedestals feel flimsy, not stiff when compared with the imported one produced by same CRCA steel of 0.5 mm thick, & it was much stiffer than ours.
please suggest me any mechanical process of stiffening, toughening the CRCA strips.
Your thoughts will be much obliged
buyer - Daman, India
A. If they are the exact same design, I will bet a cup of tea that the competitor is using a lot closer fit on the mating parts. Tighten up your tolerances and dimensions and see what happens.
James Watts- Navarre, Florida
July 30, 2009
A. Hi, Mallikarjun. The stiffness of a plain sheet metal bracket is proportional to the 3rd power of its thickness. Therefore, your bracket of thickness 0.8 mm, all other things equal, should be more than 3x as stiff as your competitors bracket of 0.5 mm thickness.
So, either James' theory is right or perhaps you are not recognizing that your competitor's pieces are deformed (like corrugated roofing) into a more productive shape than your plain brackets?
Yes, it's probably possible to harden your steel to stiffen it, or to switch to a more hardenable steel, but the numbers don't seem to point towards that being the probable need. All of this is, of course, guesswork since James and I have not analyzed drawings of what you are talking about. Best of luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2010
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