What is Hydraulic Press Brake?

Press brakes are metal forming machines used to bend sheet and plate metal into desired shapes. There are various types of press brakes: mechanical, hydraulic, servo-hydraulic and pneumatic models.

Tonnage is the primary factor when selecting a press brake, as this determines the amount of force that can be applied during bending process. Other considerations include bending angle and production volume.

Frame

Hydraulic press brake frames serve as the foundation upon which to operate the rest of the machine, comprising two side housings in either C- or D-frame design, each housing having either a bed, worktable and upper beam with tools attached that move along it - this ram is then used to bring together tooling used for bending. A punch holder attaches directly to this upper beam while die rails for holding dies are located on the bed itself.

Hydraulic press brakes typically use an electric quick-change system for quickly swapping out tools, while its back gauge requires manual fine adjustment. Bending starts when an operator steps on a foot switch which releases the ram to activate its cycle of bending.

Fabricators who wish to increase their bends per hour must consider stroke optimization when looking at ways to increase productivity. As press brakes can only reach so far before losing precision and performance quality, fabricators shops must find ways to maximize each machine for greater return.

An integral component of press brake manufacturing today is optimizing its ram speed, which can be adjusted by adding or subtracting strokes from its maximum allowable stroke limit for safety reasons. Stroke optimization research and development efforts focus heavily on this area.

Hydraulic press brakes offer a host of tooling options, from standard punches and dies, Wila mechanical and hydraulic clamps, offline software for V-bends and profile-W bends and LED directional light strips for enhanced visuals to remote programming features that enable an operator to set a job in advance then walk away to complete other tasks in their shop floor.

There is an inherent contradiction in trying to compare apples with oranges - one being much older and one much younger! So here we go again, another time travel experience Geometry classes tend to be required of high schoolers rather than because of its potential use later. Metal fabricators quickly realize, however, that knowing relative positioning in three dimensions is invaluable when operating and maintaining press brakes. Hydraulic press brake operators should become acquainted with three axes within its frame: X, Y and Z axes. The X-axis denotes front to back motion of the back gauge while independent movements of left and right flanged sides are designated Y-axes and Zaxes respectively. Utilizing these measurements, an operator can utilize back gauge movements independently in order to produce an angled bend line. An additional way of altering the X-axis can be through adding a relief cut on a workbench; this eliminates areas under dies which would otherwise produce the bend angle and allows you to achieve greater accuracy with your bend angles. Shimming can also help compensate for deflection, though it's often ineffective in most applications. Shimming involves inserting pieces of paper or cardboard between the workpiece and dies that gradually increase in height in areas with maximum bending angles, effectively closing up these angles.