Brake (sheet metal bending)

The bends can be to any angle up to a practical limit of about 120 degrees, somewhat more in the case of a bar folder.

In a box-and-pan brake (also known as a finger brake[1]), the clamping bar includes several removable blocks, which may be removed and rearranged to permit bending of restricted areas of a piece of sheet metal or of already partially formed pieces.

After bending, the box or pan form is then completed by screw, solder, weld, rivet, or other metal fixing process.

This is a more complex tool that forms predetermined bends by clamping the workpiece between a matching punch and die.

Brakes come in sizes suitable for light aluminum or brass for small boxes and operated by hand, up to industrial sized and counterweighted hand-operated or hydraulic machines suitable for large sheets of steel.