Swaging in thin aluminium sheet

Is there an optimum depth and width for swaging in relation to the thickness of the sheet.

I am making an item from 1mm thick aluminium which is basically a "U" shaped channel where each side is 50mm wide and the chanel is 60mm long.

The vertical sides of the channel need to withstand occasional bending inwards by about 15 to 25 degrees without the horizontal side deforming upwards. The obvious thing is to put a swage into the horizintal side to stiffen it.

Most swages I have seen, on other metal components, appear to have a width that is about 5 times the depth. Is this the optimum ratio based on the material thickness?

Is this bending dynamic, ie its supposed to bend in its life, or static to fit over something The material will stress crack if there is continuous bending of course. Brian

It's static so that the vertical sides get located in slots and the springiness holds them in there

Great video!

I think I have been using the term swage wrongly for -erme- decades!

I recently repaired the bearings on two breadmaking machine loaf tins (different makes - same fault) I repaired each by using a thin steel nut (from an old radio volume control pot) and filing away enough of the thread so that it just didn't quite fit over the shaft. Then using a cylindrical tool (a long reach socket from a socket set) I hammered the nut over the shaft into the position I wanted. The metal nut stretched just enough to pass over the shaft and hold itself permanantly in position.

I've always called this process swaging - should I be using a different term?

Nick snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca