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Press brake
tonnage.

Plan the bend.
Understand the load.

See how your material, bend length, and die opening affect the force required to air bend a part.

01 / Air bending estimate

From bend setup to pressing force.

Enter your material and tooling dimensions. Calculate the total load and force per foot of bend.

Material strength presetExample UTS values in ksi. Use your material certificate or supplier’s tensile strength for your actual stock.

Catalog dieAuto uses the catalog’s 6–12× thickness window and selects the closest opening to 8× thickness.

Tensile strength · ksi

Material thickness · T · in

Bend length · L · inLength engaged by the tooling for this bend.

V-die opening · V · inUse the opening of your selected die.

Air-bending coefficient · CStarts at 1.33. Change only to a validated coefficient for your air-bending setup.

This estimate applies to air bending. Bottoming, coining, and wipe bending need separate process-specific calculations.

Estimated total force

—US tons

1 US short ton = 2,000 pounds-force

Catalog die profiles ↗30° · R1

Die outline from the tooling catalog. Punch and sheet are schematic.

V opening

Select a thickness to match your catalog tooling.

Force · lbf: —
Force · kN: —
US tons per foot of bend: —
V opening / thickness: — × T

The math behind the load.

The calculation uses inch dimensions and tensile strength in ksi internally. Metric inputs are converted before calculating.

Force (lbf) = C × T² × UTS × 1,000 × L / V
US tons = force (lbf) / 2,000

Doubling the bend length doubles the estimate. Thickness enters the formula squared; a larger die opening reduces the calculated force.

Check the complete setup.

This is a load estimate, not approval of a machine or tool setup. Check the press brake’s capacity, concentrated-load limits, and the punch and die ratings over the engaged length. No capacity reserve is included in the result.

For process guidance, see WILA’s air-bending tonnage reference ↗. For Xeon tooling and material setup, explore our tooling library and Bend Inner Radius tool.

Press brake tonnage chart

Estimated force in US tons per foot of bend for a 90° air bend, on the V-die we run at each thickness. Multiply by the bend length in feet for the job. A dash means we do not bend that material at that thickness.

Press brake tonnage per foot by material thickness and V-die
Thickness	V-die	A1008 cold-rolled 44 ksi	A36 hot-rolled 58 ksi	304 stainless 73 ksi	5052-H32 aluminum 33 ksi
0.020″0.51 mm	8 mm	—	—	—	0.33
0.024″0.61 mm	8 mm	0.64	—	1.07	—
0.030″0.76 mm	8 mm	1.00	—	—	—
0.032″0.81 mm	8 mm	—	—	—	0.86
0.036″0.91 mm	8 mm	1.44	—	2.40	—
0.040″1.02 mm	8 mm	—	—	—	1.34
0.048″1.22 mm	8 mm	2.57	—	4.26	—
0.050″1.27 mm	12 mm	—	—	—	1.39
0.060″1.52 mm	12 mm	2.68	3.53	4.44	—
0.063″1.60 mm	12 mm	—	—	—	2.21
0.075″1.90 mm	12 mm	4.18	5.51	6.94	—
0.080″2.03 mm	20 mm	—	—	—	2.14
0.090″2.29 mm	20 mm	3.61	—	—	2.71
0.100″2.54 mm	20 mm	4.46	5.88	7.40	3.34
0.120″3.05 mm	20 mm	6.42	8.46	10.7	—
0.125″3.17 mm	30 mm	—	—	—	3.48
0.135″3.43 mm	30 mm	5.42	7.14	8.99	—
0.160″4.06 mm	30 mm	—	—	—	5.71
0.188″4.78 mm	30 mm	—	13.9	17.4	7.88
0.250″6.35 mm	50 mm	—	14.7	18.5	8.36
0.313″7.95 mm	50 mm	—	23.0	—	—
0.375″9.52 mm	50 mm	—	33.1	—	18.8
0.500″12.70 mm	50 mm	—	—	—	33.4
0.750″19.05 mm	50 mm	—	—	—	75.2

Formula: tons per foot = 1.33 × T² × UTS × 12 ÷ V ÷ 2,000, with T and V in inches and UTS in psi. Tensile strengths are typical values; use your material certificate for the real number. Enter your own setup in the calculator above, or see the dies in the press brake tooling library.

Plan the bend.
Make the part.

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The math behind the load.

Check the complete setup.

Press brake tonnage chart

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