Controlling springback in stainless steel bending
Material, tooling and process approaches to compensate springback, with typical values for common grades.
Springback comes from elastic recovery. Austenitic grades such as 304 and 316L work-harden strongly and spring back more than carbon steel. Control methods: - Tool compensation: over-bend by experience, typically 1-3 degrees for 304, increasing with thickness. - Reduce die opening: a V-die of roughly 6-8 times thickness gives more stable springback. - Rolling direction: bending parallel to the rolling direction raises cracking risk, while perpendicular bending increases springback. Trial bend both orientations. - Material condition: hard-rolled material springs back more. Specify annealed material or a controlled hardness range where needed. Run a small trial batch and measure the first part before mass production. Do not transfer carbon steel parameters directly.