Tools & equipment have always been combined with knowledge as well as experience for turning raw sheet stock into useful parts in the
metal fabrication process. While sheet metal working machines are crucial to the factory process, so are skilled & well-trained fabricators. Although tools & techniques meet & mingle, one specific area of activity tends to stand out in terms of difficulty when compared to the rest.
Press machines are some of the most complex factory machines to not just setup but also operate & hence, skilled as well as experienced
press brake operators are the most sought-after individuals on the factory floor. Also, training new operators, and even with great mentorship is a daunting task & is likely to lead to Scrap & rework being generated till the trainees go to a level where they can be productive. Furthermore, while the amount of knowledge is needed to be successful in running a brake, there are several safety concerns which come with introducing people to a new mechanical process and if there are any mistakes or momentary inattention it will quickly result in on the job injuries.
Manufacturers of
press machines & press technology have worked well in the last years for improving this picture. Since the machines turn to be more precise, they are able to hit the same position again and again even when the frame is set to tremendous tonnage load. However, it becomes easier for operators for producing consistently accurate flanges.
Since integrated machine safety systems shift from the "optional add-on" realm to the "standard equipment" realm, the operating press brakes and machine process has become safer as well as press-related injuries less common. In the meantime, software improvements to the press controls combined with the advances in the sophistication of offline programming systems for bending machines, have made it in obtaining getting newer bending jobs into manufacturing not just faster but highly efficient as well. Also, combined with these improvements, the shift in precision-ground, segmented bending tools has enhanced setting up press brakes faster as well as more ergonomic.
Tool setup indicator
While the advances have not stopped there, new innovations in press technology are removing down the barriers for new operators to learn metal forming & making the task of training new operators safer and highly productive than it has ever been and these advances are also highly helpful for experienced operators, which makes
them to leverage their skills to be more efficient at bending & the tool setup indicator is not just one of the simplest of these new technologies, but also one of the most helpful.
While this feature was present on presses for some time, it is now becoming more common place and it comprises of a strip of LED lights that were mounted to the tool clamp on the press brake, and it is usually recessed under a hard cover for protecting it from accidental damage. The tool setup indicator displays that the press operator exactly where the bending tools for the present job should be loaded into the press and once tool setup is complete, it can help guide the operator via the bending sequence, by lighting up above the present active tool station for every step in the bending program. When this is paired-up with an optical safety system which can find out the profile of the bending tools that are loaded into the machine, the technology can make setting up a new job on the press brake nearly foolproof, and it is applicable even for a brand-new machine operator.
Active angle measuring
Active angle measuring is a technology which is not very new however it keeps advancing in capability as well as ease-of-use. Several different systems have been devised by press brake builders to regulate bending angles on-the-fly. However, the impetus for this development is, the fact that sheet metal as one of the raw materials is notoriously inconsistent. Not just the thickness & tensile strength of sheet metal parts differ either from 1 batch of material to another batch or from 1 sheet to another, and these parameters can also differ within a single sheet. For instance, most of the rolled metal sheets are a little thicker in the middle than that at the edges owing to the slight deflection of the rollers under pressure in the sheet-making process. The aim of Angle measuring technology is to either decrease or eliminate the effect of all this variation on the process of making bent parts.
While the proliferation of 3D programming software, precise bending machines, precision-ground bending tools, as well as active angle compensation technology have together form an angular accuracy making it easier than ever to achieve, all of these technology combined together will not stop scrap parts being manufactured even if the operator does not handle the part correctly and it is highly easy for inexperienced press operators even after providing good instruction to become confused regarding the sequence or exact positioning of a part. And they end up forming a flange incorrectly. Also, even the most experienced press operators at times can be fooled easily by a part which appears symmetrical however in reality is not. 1 slot or round hole would make an apparently symmetrical part non-symmetrical, a detail which is easier to overlook & will definitely lead to a bad part being manufactured.
Innovations in the press technology toolbox
An addition to the press technology toolbox is to rectify the errors. While the part position indicator makes use of a vision system that is integrated into the press brake, it is combined with some other slick image processing software which is on the machine control. This is mainly used for ensuring the right placement of the bending part towards the back gauges of the machine for all the bending step. The machine operator is presented with a real-time video image on the press control and this shows, from a top-down perspective, the bending part & back gauges as the part is put into the machine.
While the sum of these technologies shows that these new press machines will be user-friendly, productive, safe as well as easier for training new team members, the decrease in scrap as well as increase in productivity shows that these new generation bending machines will help in being more profitable to operate than ever before. And finally, the real upshot of all this advancing press technology will be that fabricators who will no longer look at the press brake in the shop as the ‘complex’, or ‘dangerous’ machine & would rather arrive to a conclusion to consider it the perfect machine for a new fabricator to start learning the trade.
