Page 72 - MetalForming October 2012

Automated Panel Bending
more than double throughput. First, when the operator loads a blank into the machine, it’s centered just once, at the start of the bending cycle— there’s no need to re-center the blank after each bend. Also, the design of the segmented bending tool is such that the blankholder conforms auto- matically and instantly to the part dimensions. The blankholder can expand or contract in 0.020-in. incre- ments to accommodate a wide range of bend dimensions.
If you’ve never seen an automatic panel bender run through its paces, the nimble, fast and accurate machines are quite a sight to see. The automatic manipulator grips the blank and quick- ly indexes it on a horizontal plane in and out of the bend tooling. A rotator turns the blank to present each edge of the part to the tooling, to enable rapid- fire forming up or down. Control capa- bilities of the rotator include adjustable gripping pressure, so as to not mar the surface finish of the workpiece—par-
The panel bender forms this part— 10 by 20 in.—at a rate of 400 per 8-hr. shift, compared to
200 per
shift using two
separate setups
on a press brake.
The second setup was required to hem the hang- ers, easily tackled by the panel bender.
ticularly important when QFI runs alu- minum sheet through the bender. Max- imum bend length on the P2Xe is 86 in., yet the compact machine occupies a compact footprint measuring only 19.7 by 9.8 ft.
Don’t Blink—
ROI Comes Quickly
“The machine makes all 11 bends without manual intervention, in 33 sec.,” says forming supervisor Bill Alt-
man, adding that total cycle time of a typical enclosure is 52 sec. when accounting for blank load and part unload. “And, the ability to change the length of the tooling segments in a matter of seconds means we can change over the machine from one
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MetalForming/October 2012
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