Written by: Shane, MachineMFG
As the demand for highly flexible automatic processing is getting higher and higher, the demand for easy and time-saving bending process is getting stronger and stronger.
CNC sheet bending machine adopts a unique two-way bending mechanism to keep the sheet material horizontal during the bending process and avoid space flip. With functional components such as positioning device, automatic die change and operator, it realizes fast, highly flexible and automatic processing.
Compared with the processing method of the press brake, the CNC panel bender (Figure 1) does not require die change, has a short working stroke, fast feed rate, higher overall efficiency, and facilitates flexible production.
With the successful development and promotion of products, how to meet the diverse process needs of various workpieces has become the next key issue in the development of bending machine technology.
Because of its free bending characteristics, the bending machine has a lot of freedom in the development of the process, it does not need to change or adjust the mold, through the upper and lower bending die and compression die combination action, you can achieve a variety of bending processes, the process performance is more excellent.
The following typical workpieces of different industries are used to share with you several features of the panel bender process realization.
Flattening process
The flattening process, also known as edge hemming, is a relatively common process in the sheet metal bending process, which can improve the strength of the sheet metal edge, and make the sheet metal edge smooth without polishing.
The flattening of the press brake machine requires two bending processes, i.e., the need to change the mold, first using a 30° acute punch with inserted deep V-slot to bend 30° to 45°, and then using the flattening die to press.
In contrast, when the panel bender carries out the processing of the flattening process, there is no need to change the mold, and a variety of flattening effects can be achieved through the mutual cooperation of the bending beam and the pressing beam.
The most common is the bottom flattening process of hemming.
For the panel bender machine, whether forward or reverse flattening, there is no need to flip the sheet, it is directly placed flat on the table surface and formed at an angle of 30° to 45° through the conventional bending process, and then the formed bending corner is sent to the lower die table and flattened using the pressing die, the whole process can be completed in just a few seconds, see Figure 2.
For the demand of bending after flattening (Fig. 3), the panel bending machine can be processed directly.
In addition to the common forward and reverse flattening, the switchgear and elevator industries often see the need for opening flattening (Figure 4) to enhance the strength and feel of the door edge.
The panel bender can also work with the bending beam and the compression beam to easily achieve a wide range of bending sizes and angles for the first pass, while quickly achieving the desired final flattening effect.
Rounding process
The rounding process (Figure 5) is now also a mandatory process for most manufacturers’ workpieces. To achieve the rounding process, specific molds must be used.
Different angles and radii of the arc require different molds, which is not only costly but also time-consuming and laborious.
The bending machine, on the other hand, only needs to add one more bending process.
Because of its efficient continuous automatic bending, the arc can be formed by a combination of multiple small-angle bending, which not only produces perfect results, but also does not affect the continuous processing of the workpiece.
If the conventional bending method is used, even if there are more segments, eventually there will be a few creases on the outside of the arc formed by continuous bending because of the processing mechanism of the panel bender, which cannot meet the process requirements of some industry workpieces.
As a senior sheet metal equipment supplier with many years of research and development experience, after continuous testing, we finally developed a new set of arc process realization scheme, through the mutual cooperation of the folding die and ram processing and forming, so that the crease appears on the inner side of the arc, will not affect the surface smoothness, and the forming efficiency has been improved and can give a suitable arc process scheme according to different sizes of arc and accuracy requirements, to save time and improve efficiency as much as possible while meeting the process requirements.
The advantage of the panel bender processing technique is not only to save time and money, for some seemingly simple process needs, the structure of the conventional bending machine determined that it is simply impossible to process.
For example, the side mounting plate in the figure below (Figure 6), there are only two processes on one side, a 90 ° forming, a 1/4 arc forming, if processed with a bending machine, first fold 90 ° forming, arc will not be processed, first fold 1/4 arc forming, and then processing 90 ° straight edge, will certainly affect the already processed arc surface.
And by the panel bending machine it can be achieved easily, efficiently and with high precision.
Shaped bending process
Shaped bending is a relatively broad description, the actual is through the panel bending machine free bending path and die combination to achieve a variety of smaller size shaped process.
For example, U-shaped bending with less than 6mm opening, small Z-shaped bending with 1mm step difference, N-shaped bending of various small sizes, etc. See Figure 7.
Although these forming shapes can eventually be processed by the press brake machine, the processing can be done in one go using the panel bender.
The whole process does not need to change the mold, no need to turn the surface, especially for larger size workpieces, the labor requirement is low and the machining accuracy is higher and more consistent.
Conclusion
Panel benders have already received a lot of attention due to their high processing efficiency, strong mold function and ease of flexible production.
And as the panel bender continues to be promoted, it will come into contact with more industries and customers and different process requirements. As a leader in the sheet metal forming industry, we will also put more effort into the development of the process to meet the needs of our customers.