Bending Made Easy With Electric Press Brake Machines

By Author: steven glassner
Total Articles: 153
Comment this article

Over the last few decades, the evolution of press brakes has been phenomenal. These transitions have given birth to lots of different types of press brakes, from mechanical to hydraulic and now to electric.The best machines have quality parts like Amada parts and Mazak parts for efficient results.

There are a lot of assumptions about the speed, precision, and convenience of electric machines.These machines don’t have hydraulic oil or associated seals which simplify their maintenance.

They offer high-speed operation where the ram descends quickly to stop at a pre-defined bending speed position and then goes down to bend the work-piece and then comes back up to the top dead center.

In electric brakes, optoelectronic mixes safely and closely with the control, so much so that a light curtain or similar device has no effect whatsoever on the cycle time of bending. And we can quite frankly say that for the electric press brake safety does not necessarily mean sacrificing cycle time.

1. Crowning Alternative:

In the hydraulic systems, the tonnage comes ...
... through hydraulic actuators from any one side of the machine. This means that as the ram comes down, gets in touch with the metal workpiece, and encounters resistance, the press brake bed bends. It creates a deflection that gets dealt with a type of crowning system.

In the type of the press brake machine i.e. pulley-driven electric press brake, the AC servomotors drive a double pulley system extending across the length of the press brake ram. The number of pulley blocks varies according to the machine’s size and power requirements.

Belts are thick and are made of 0.12 inches wires which are strengthened using a material coating of polyurethane; the same ones used in elevator systems.

AC servomotors drive the double pulley system on four axles and balance fixed and flexible rolls. These rolls are useful to adjust and distribute the tonnage evenly. Hence, instead of force coming from two hydraulic actuators on either side of the brake, the pulley and belt drive system distributes force evenly across the ram length.

This technology helps with on-the-fly adjustment to ensure even force distribution throughout the bending cycle.

This will not stop the lower beam from a deflection. The lower beam has an identical system of pulleys to distribute force, but this makes press brake very unconventional and costly. And there are the some options when it comes to machines that have quality parts like Mazak parts and Amada parts and would still fit your budget.

Due to this reason, some electric press brakes have low beams and interior subframe. The exterior beam material is stiff which minimizes deflection. But, the interior subframe is tough to absorb deflection. The design of this subframe is such that it is tough and stiff. This ensures the subframe structure is flexible and deflects sufficiently for the proper machine tonnage.

2. Safety:

The goal of any press brake machine is to produce parts perfectly, quickly, and safely. Earlier machine

designers were trying to perform a balancing act between these three factors while some times promoting one factor at a time. But, with the current electric press brake machines, these three things are easy to handle and juggle between.

Considering the safety measures, many press brake machines enhance safety measures in the front, side and behind the press brake machines. In some cases, high and low adjustments are safety enhancement types.

With time, introduction to new things takes place and one of these is light curtains.

The advantage of using a light curtain is it brings flexibility, laser guarding, and camera-based systems. Laser and camera-based systems travel along with ram and work at the bottom of the tooling.

Optoelectronic safety devices in combination with traditional and mechanical safeguards to side and behind the work envelope. In the long term, it has turned out to be an incredible and effective solution.

But, even today with time, these products require slight efficiency sacrifice. Driving systems on most of the press brakes are either hydraulic or mechanical. In such cases, optoelectronic safety systems tell machines to stop when a beam or vision path is broken or when the ram returns to the top dead center. In such instances, the electronic system interfaces with the hydraulic or hydro-mechanical system.

3. Speed with precision:

Press brakes remain common in metal fabrication. It is a long and tardy task to form a part then cut it. Additionally, nowadays it is even more difficult to find skilled and experienced operators. Working with a press brake can be difficult for many experienced operators too. These days offline programming and real-time adjustments on the brake take up minutes instead of hours of long setups. Also, they are now long-lasting considering their quality parts like Amada parts and Mazak parts.

Final words:

Today with constant revolution and emerging technology, electric press brakes are the latest evolution of bending machine tools. There are many other machines with safeguards placed and are fully functional. This new technology makes the bending process faster, accurate, and safe.

Steve M Glassner is the General Manager of Alternative Parts Inc, the leading manufacturer and distributor of Amada machinery replacement parts. Steve is a Machine Tools industry enthusiast and frequently writes about various aspects of the industry.