Bending machines: types and tips for choosing

Recommendation points

• Press brakes with a punch and a matrix
• Rotary sheet benders with bending beam (traverse)
• Rotary bending machines with different number of rolls

The article discusses various types of bending machines: press on the basis of a punch and dies, using a rotary bending beam, rotary with a different number of rolls and additional equipment for them. Describes the design of the machines, their capabilities for processing metal sheets.

Sheet bending machines are a type of press designed to cold shape blanks from metal sheets. As a workpiece, a rolled or sheet galvanized sheet with a thickness of 0.5 to 1.5 mm is most often used, less often a steel sheet with a thickness of up to 2.5–3 mm. With the help of listogibs, ebbs, corners, pipes, boxes and other products that are in demand during construction are made. For the convenience of the operator, the machine can have the function of cutting metal to measured lengths.

Depending on the power, the machine can use human muscle power, hydraulics, pneumatics as a drive, and an electromechanical drive can be used. Currently, most of the produced machine tools for cold working of metal use three versions of the press mechanism:

• press with a punch and a matrix;
• rotary with a bending beam;
• rotary with two, three and four rolls.

Machine control can be performed manually or using a built-in microcontroller with automation elements (CNC), which allows you to maximize the efficiency of equipment in medium-batch production.

Press brakes with a punch and a matrix

This type of machine allows you to give a workpiece a complex shape due to the use of dies and punches of various shapes.

In these machines, the die and the punch can be either integral or composite, which makes it possible to increase their working life and the ability to give the workpiece the desired shape.

The principle of the machine is simple:

• a blank is placed over the matrix;
• the punch performs a force movement, during which the shape of the metal changes.

Rotary sheet benders with bending beam (traverse)

The principle of the machine is simple:

1. The metal sheet is placed on the support beam, under the clamp.
2. The part of the metal to be bent extends to the level of the swing beam.
3. The pressure beam fixes the metal in the machine.
4. Using a lever, the swing beam is moved to the desired angle, during which the metal takes on the desired shape.

Some models of bending machines can be additionally equipped with a free-stroke limiter for the bending beam and devices for controlling the bending angle of the workpiece.

Many machines support compatibility with special metal shears, with which you can easily cut a sheet of metal along the entire length of the working part of the bending machine.

Rotary bending machines with different number of rolls

These machines are used exclusively for rounding sheet blanks, including a circle..

For work, both manual drive and a combination of hydraulic clamping systems with an electromechanical drive for roll rotation can be used.

The placement of the work rolls can be performed according to one of the following schemes:

To increase the possibilities for processing thick metal in the structure of the machine, additional backup rolls can be used, which increase the value of the ultimate pressure on the metal being processed.

The principle of operation of such a machine is simple:

• the metal is placed between the rolls;
• working force is set using the clamping mechanism;
• by rotating one or more rolls, the metal moves between them and acquires the required amount of bending.

Bending machines are equipment that is usually made to order, so it is difficult to say the exact cost, you can only voice the price run “from” and “to”.

Approximate prices for bending machines

The choice of a specific model of a listogib depends solely on the needs of the production of finished products. To solve most problems, you can make a do-it-yourself listogib or purchase a manual machine made on the basis of a bending beam. This machine has a minimal cost and a simple, reliable design, which makes it easy to recoup the purchase costs by saving on energy and consumables.

Small-scale production of products is advisable to produce on CNC machines, made on the basis of press benders with a punch and a matrix. This type of machine allows, in the shortest possible time, to reconfigure the system for different working profiles and to increase the efficiency of the equipment as a whole by minimizing manual labor.