Understanding The Major Factors In Modern Day Metal Fabrication

In sheet metal bending and fabrication industry, press brake tooling strategies play an important role in improvement of performance in short-run bending operations and also in reduction of required setup time and with the new technology Amada Punch Press and press brakes now available, processing short run of high-mix parts is much easier. Proper applications of the machine and tooling as well as use of advanced software technology are most important factors for short-running high-mix bending and an Amada Press Brake is expected to be serving you the best in this respect.

As per the experts, fabricators have now stopped making tryout parts and cut only the exactly required number of blanks putting a lot of extra pressure on the press brake operators by demanding additional setup time for double checking everything and ensure that "first part is good-part". That also means that setup time is the second most important factor for the modern fabrication industry and used press brakes are now available online and come with features like optimized tool changing and dedicated complete tool library. For these features Amada press brakes and punch presses are getting increasingly popular among the fabricators.

In short run high-mix bending processes, setup time, ergonomics and quality of finished products are the areas of performance most affected by tool strategy and the quality of the production is actually directly proportional to precision tooling. An Amada Press Brake with tolerance level of 10-thousandths of an inch can truly result in producing perfectly error free bends. These lightweight machines also have features like easy to handle segmented tooling systems, front loading, auto-centering and self seating those can directly influence tooling strategy, required tool setup time and also operator ergonomics. Another factor that plays an important role in short-run high-mix metal bending processes is offline programming for along with significantly improving machine utilization, it also plays a major role in identifying and solving potential problems before the process is actually released for production.

Almost all Amada used press brakes now available in the market are devoted to operator ergonomics and are loaded with operator friendly features like work area lighting, touch screen and voice activated control, front loading tool systems, optical bend guiding and self-adjusting safeguarding system and QR code readers. As universal bending machines, almost all Amada Punch Press and press brakes offer part shape envelop automation and support advanced CAD drawing tools and simulations for helping the operators step by step in complex short-run high-mix bending processes those can be real challenges. As a matter of fact in modern day metal bending and fabrication industry, short-running of high-mix parts and automation are mutually exclusive on press brakes. Both simulation and automation are features those not only save time but also guarantee that no parts are formed backwards. Though there are some processes those require inprocess tool changing but most of the times they can also be typically modified for adaptation and Amada Press Brake machines have features required for that inprocess tool changing.

About The Author

Maddox Henderson is a veteran from the metal fabrication industry and has witness the field going through many transformations first hand. He also likes to write many informative articles about his understanding of the industry and the best tools for use in projects like Amada laser machine and more!