Product category:
Pressbrakes and folding machines
News Release from: LVD (UK) | Subject: PPEB 1350kN by 3.0m press brake
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 25 February 2005
Adaptive bending ups accuracy and
quality
Adaptive bending system and advanced offline programming software dramatically reduces 'art to part' times and ensures 'right first time' parts off the press brake.
The next time you stop at your local petrol station to pick up some flowers or barbecue fuel, take a closer look at the display stand and don't be surprised if you see the letters CSM Computerised Sheet Metal (CSM) is not only a very successful subcontractor it is also one the UK's leading suppliers of external merchandising units to the forecourt sector, supplying companies such as Shell, BP and Texaco with stands and enclosures for products such as coal, barbecue fuel, flowers and soft drinks
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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To meet the demands of these different customers and markets CSM needs to have production equipment can adapt to meet tight delivery schedules on both large batches and one-offs.
For the past few years it has based its manufacturing philosophy around LVD machine tools, and these now include laser systems, punch presses and press brakes.
CSM's latest investments have been in an LVD PPEB 1350kN (135tonf) by 3.0m press brake with LVD's Easy Form Laser adaptive bending system, and in LVD's CADMANO B 3D offline programming software.
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This combination not only dramatically reduces 'art to part' times but also ensures 'right first time' parts off the press brake.
As Managing Director Paul King explains, "Companies such as NCR and Motorola want short lead times, and this is where the LVD technology comes in.
All they want to do is send us a 3D computer model and for us to turn it round as quickly as possible and deliver the parts.
With the CADMANO software I can take a 3D electronic model, convert it into a flat development for the punch or laser, and have it running on the press brake within hours.
The CADMAN) software unfolds the 3D file and uses proven historical data to calculate the correct bend allowance without you having to think about it.
It also gives you the correct bend sequence and the best tooling option at the same time." King says that CADMANO also allows him to make better use of his more highly skilled employees.
"Skills are always scarce in the press brake area, and the people with good skills end up setting up the machines for their less experienced colleagues," he says.
" Now they can produce programs from the 3D models in about a tenth of the time it used to take them and download them to the press brake.
All the guy on the machine has to do is look at the screen and follow the instructions - it tells him exactly what he has to do." Even then though, variation in material thickness and grain orientation from part to part can mean that the bend angle you get is not the one you expected.
This is where the Easy Form Laser comes into its own, as it monitors the bending process in real time and makes adjustments to make sure that the final bend angle is correct first time, every time.
As King explains, "We do quite a lot of heavy stainless brackets up to 15mm thick.
These are expensive components in their own right, so we don't want to lose any by over-bending or under-bending them.
On that kind of component, where the dimensions are critical, the Easy Form Laser makes sure we get it right every time." The Easy Form can be used on every bend, the first bend on every component, or, if you know that a batch of material is likely to be consistent from component to component, it can be used for the first off to establish the correct parameters, which can then be applied to the whole batch.
"It is the steel that is the variable," says King.
"And with steel prices as they are it is a valuable material, so it is important to make the best possible use of it.
But when you use nesting programs to optimise material usage - getting parts out of apertures here there and everywhere - then passing these parts to the press brake is a nightmare." The punched or laser cut blanks for a batch of press-braked parts could well have come from different batches of material, and the grain orientation could change with every component.
This means that the normal practice of the operator using the first-off component to set up for the batch could actually be counterproductive.
"A batch of a hundred might have come from five different sheets and be oriented in as many different directions," says King.
"But the Easy Form Laser can measure and adapt every time.
This means it is cost-effective for us to use up any dead areas in a sheet by nesting and we can also happily use up any off-cuts.
On stainless (steel) that's certainly where we see some of the biggest savings.".
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