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CNC Sheet Metal Bending

CNC Bending sheet metal work with CNC Bend tooling and CNC Press Brakes

Computer numerically controlled (CNC) bending is a sheet metal folding process that is carried out by CNC press brakes. These machines can bend sheet metal from just a few mm in length to sections many metres long on the largest industrial machines. At SAMS Fabrications we are able to CNC fold up to 4m long. Our CNC press brake has a fixed bottom bed with the V block tooling clamped in place and a top beam which travels under force with the upper tools which are hydraulically clamped this is known as down forming. We have a down forming CNC press (Edwards Pearson PR4).

The CNC press brake is programmed offline by computer software and the data then transferred to the machine controls. Our software is used to program the press to accept the sheet metal component flat blank at a given distance which is defined by the programmable back stop to determine the point where the bend will be formed. The depth that the top tool blade enters into the V block has been programmed with allocated tonnage for the correct force applied allocated which will define the angle achieved of the final bend, the further the V blade enters the V block the tighter angle the final V bend will be. The final component can be a combination of different bend lengths and angles generated by the CNC program positioning the sheet metal component blank at defined positions and programmed angles. Our press brake also has an automatic hydraulic compensation system known as crowning to ensure the correct angle is produced along the full length of the sheet.

The maximum length of the sheet metal component that can be folded is defined by the length of the CNC press brake bed and also the thickness of material is a key element along with other factors such as the material tensile strength and the amount of tonnage available from the machine to form the sheet metal. The larger the bottom V block opening the greater the sheet metal gauge can that can be bent for the same tonnage. But, as the V block opening is increased so does the internal radius of the bend on the sheet metal work and the minimum fold length is also increased.

We have a wide and varied selection of case studies and examples of work in our gallery which illustrate these design ideas and enable you to fully benefit from the versatility of CNC bending, please take a look to learn more or give us a call if you want to discuss further your particular sheet metal work design needs.

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