[Jixxer]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with a problem I have with Flattening a pipe in Solidworks. I can get to flatten fine, but the outcome is to short.
I have figured out that it is actually making the flat platten from the center of the wall thickness instead of the OD of the pipe.
Does anyone know a way to make it use the OD ? I know I can make the wall thickness .01mm or something like that and my solution will be well within acceptable measurements, but if there is another way I would love to hear it.

[Apexengineering]

Jixxer,
When material is formed or rolled the inside of the material is compressed and the outside of the material is stretched. At a certain point it neither stretches or compresses. Usually it is about 44% of the material thickness from inside of the material (50% for stainless steel), the bend radius is ½ of the outside diameter minus the material thickness. The formula to calculate the stretchout of your pipe would be as follows (material thickness * .44 + inside bend radius) * .01745 * 360 degress. As an example if you have a 4” diameter pipe with a .250 wall thickness you would do this → (.25 * .44 + 1.75) * .01745 * 360. The pipe stretchout would result in a piece that is somewhere around 11.687” in the flat. When you roll your pipe it should be very close to a 4” diameter. Use this formula to verify the solid works results.

With all of this being said if you have your solid works k factor set at .44 your flat pipe dimension will seem very short but should be close to the results that you need.