Product category:
Pressbrakes and folding machines
News Release from: LVD (UK) | Subject: CNC press brake and software
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 November 2004
CNC press brake systems raise part
quality
Investment in a new CNC press brake that uses adaptive bending software has improved quality and cut the time it takes to bring new textile testing equipment to market.
Halifax-based James Heal has been making testing equipment for the textile industry since the 1940s And although the UK textile industry has declined, James Heal is still a leader in its field and sells it's products throughout the world
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Innovation and customer service have been key factors in that success, and by investing in an LVD CNC press brake, with LVD's Patented Easy Form LaserO adaptive bending and CADMANO B 3D software James Heal is improving quality and cutting the time it takes to bring new products to market.
James Heal's equipment is designed to mistreat textiles in almost any way you could imagine, says Production Manager, Neil Pryke.
"We wash, we shrink, we burn, we tear, we scorch, we rip - but always under standard conditions." Many of these machines are only made in small numbers - maybe fifty a year - and they are made in batches to ensure off-the-shelf availability.
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Batch size depends on the product, says Neil, and is calculated on the basis of an economic order quantity.
"On something that is cheap to make, like a sample cutter, we might make a hundred-off, and on a more expensive machine we may only make ten," he says.
With low batch, high quality work like this, set up time becomes significant.
"We might only make a part four times a year, and it could be made by any one of three operators - so an operator may only make a part once a year.
They couldn't possibly be expected to remember how each part is made, but the CADMANO software gives them 3D rendered views of the tool set up and bend sequence.
We use quick-release tooling and they can set the machine up from scratch in minutes," says Pryke.
"We may be making as few as ten parts, so it's important that the first off part is right - and that's where LVD's Easy Form LaserO comes into its own." When you are trying to bend steel there are a number of factors working against you getting every part right.
One problem is thickness variation.
Standards allow for the sheet thickness to vary by plus or minus ten percent.
This can result in a difference in bend angle of plus or minus 2.6 degrees on the material that James Heal is using.
The second problem is that when you nest parts on the sheet for punching, they are aligned at different angles with respect to the rolling direction.
The tonnage you need to produce the correct bend angle can vary depending on whether you are bending along the rolling direction or across it, and that is on top of the effect of the varying thicknesses.
The bending process is also affected by the mechanical properties of the material.
Metals with a higher strain-hardening coefficient will tend to produce a bend with a larger radius, which reduces the amount the tool needs to penetrate the die - and the elastic properties of the material will cause it to spring back after bending.
The Easy Form LaserO measures the angle between the tool and the sheet throughout the bending process and compensates for spring-back to ensure that the correct bend angle is achieved first time, every time.
" We are trying to take the guess work out of the material - about the thickness, about the grain structure, about the strain hardening, about the spring back.
All these variables are taken out of the process by the Easy Form Laser, and that's what sold us on the LVD system," says Pryke.
When it comes to producing new parts the CADMANO software is the key to getting them right first time.
James Heal generally introduces at least two new product developments every year.
Each will include around a hundred sheet metal parts that are designed in 3D using Auto Desk Inventor CAD software.
The LVD CADMANO software takes these electronic part files and unfolds them to a flat developed part using LVD's 'true' bend allowances database to calculate the correct bend allowance for the tooling and material.
CADMANO then works out if the part can be made, automatically calculates the manufacturing sequence and generates the machine programme and tooling set up data - including 3D bending sequence pictures to assist the operator.
"When we make new parts we are not reading drawings, we are going from a 3D design to a punched and formed component.
In the past it could have taken days, now we can do it within minutes," says Pryke.
"The LVD Easy Form LaserO Adaptive Bending System makes sure that our production parts are right first time and the CADMANO software means we can go from the design to the part without problems or trial and error.
So we haven't just reduced lead times, we have also made a massive saving on scrap.".
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