Perforation pattern designer
Set the pattern and watch the sheet redraw at true proportion. Open area, ligament, hole count and weight are computed live — and checked against our actual tooling before you send anything.
How the designer works
- How is open area calculated?
- Hole area divided by the area of the repeating cell that contains one hole. For round holes on a 60° staggered pitch that reduces to the familiar d² × 90.69 / T², which is the formula printed in our catalogue. Square, hexagonal and slot patterns use the same method with their own hole and cell geometry.
- What is the ligament, and why does it matter?
- The ligament is the web of metal left between two adjacent holes. It is what the punch has to leave behind, and it is the usual reason a pattern cannot be made. Below roughly 0.7 times the sheet thickness the tooling breaks. The designer flags this before you send the drawing.
- Why does it reject a small hole in thick plate?
- A punch narrower than the material it is driven through takes a bending load it was not designed for, and snaps. The rule is that hole diameter must be at least the sheet thickness — so a 6 mm plate takes a 6 mm hole, not a 3 mm one. For smaller holes in thick material the answer is laser cutting.
- Is the weight figure accurate enough to quote from?
- It is accurate for the geometry: gross weight from sheet size, thickness and material density, minus the metal removed inside the perforated zone, with unperforated margins excluded. Use it for planning and freight. A firm price still depends on material rate, finish and quantity.
- Can I share a design with a colleague?
- Yes — the whole design is encoded in the page address, so copy the link and it opens with the same pattern. 'Copy spec & link' puts both the figures and the link on your clipboard.