Contents of a Bending Template

A template as stored in the plate data bank consists of the following types of information.

Example of bending templates

1. A closed template contour. The upper part of the template is straight and should lie in the same plane (the sight plane) for all the templates of the plate. The width of the template should fit exactly to the width of the plate.

2. A direction mark (a small triangle) at the right end of the template. It is intended for checking against a corresponding mark on the plate (or a sketch of the plate) to make sure that the template is turned correctly when used.

3. A sight line mark (a small tick) perpendicular to the upper edge of the template. When the plate is correctly shaped the sight line marks of all templates should lie in line with each other.

4. Two matching set-square marks (ticks) at the lower and upper edges of the template are supposed to be used in the following way. Some types of templates are supposed to be mounted perpendicular to the plate. They are positioned with the aid of a right angle tool (see the picture below). However, since the plate is curved and may be twisted it is necessary to specify where along the template this tool should be placed. This position is indicated by the set-square marks. (Similarly they may be used to define where the angle against the plate should be measured for other types of templates.)

Templates are by default perpendicular to shell plate surface

Additionally, each template is supplied with a transformation matrix so that it is correctly positioned in space. Therefore, the templates may be displayed in 3D views together with its plate.

(The vocabulary used above may be slightly different for certain types of templates. Details will be found together with the description of them.)