Wort des Tages
16 March 2026
K-factor
nounMetallurgie
The bending capacity of sheet metal, as calculated using a formula.
Warum dieses Wort
It locates the neutral axis inside the bend: the line that neither stretches nor compresses. People treat it as one fixed number, but it shifts with material, thickness and tool radius, and getting it wrong shows up as a flat blank that folds to the wrong length.
In use
Parts came out a couple of mil long again, so I'd check the K-factor in the flat pattern before we punch any more of them.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.