Industrial Design students: With any luck your programs occasionally tear you away from the 3D printers to educate you on traditional production methods. One thing I don't see a lot of in ID student projects, and I look through a fair amount, is the use of sheet metal. So I thought it might be helpful to show you what some state-of-the-art sheet metal fabrication tools can do, to give you an idea for possibilities you can spec in your designs.

Companies like Germany-based UKB specialize in making all manner of press brake tools. To help designers and fabricators understand the capabilities, they've got a YouTube channel filled with 45-second clips featuring different brakes and results. Here's a sample:

Radius Tool

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Radius Embossing Tool

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Adjustable Unibending Tool

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U-Bending Tool with Overbending Function

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Trapezoidal Tool

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Z-Bending Tool

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Fold and Flatten Tool

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Louvre Tool

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U-Bending Tool for Extra Thick (8mm / 5/16") Material

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Assymmetrical U-Bending Tool

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If you'd rather not sit through videos, they've also got 2D representations that you can browse to see the different profiles possible:

The firm also makes custom tools, like the one you see in the GIF atop this entry.

You can learn more here.