Press brakes have a specific bending length and a specific tonnage that are suited for the range of parts that each company processes. Companies normally utilize press brakes that can process a diverse range of materials to maintain flexibility in their production scheduling. Usually this means having a ten or twelve foot bend length and a tonnage that can process from thin to thick. From a scheduling perspective this is an ideal situation as it provides maximum flexibility in scheduling jobs, but from a productivity and capacity perspective this may not be the ideal situation.
The Physics of Working with Mass
Press brakes come in all different sizes and tonnages, and have vastly different technologies to aid in the bending process. While thin small parts can be processed on a large tonnage brake, longer thicker parts cannot be processed on a small tonnage brake because they will most likely exceed the tonnage capacity of the brake. But running small parts on a large tonnage brake with a long upper ram length is not efficient. It all comes down to simple physics. A larger, heavier mass is more difficult to accelerate and will take longer to reach top speed than a smaller, lighter mass. Likewise, to decelerate a larger, heavier mass is more difficult and it will require more time.. This all adds up to lost time, especially when bending small thin parts that could be more efficiently formed on a smaller press brake.
An Opportunity to Realize Greater Profits
If you find that most of your smaller parts are being formed on oversized press brakes, then this is an area of opportunity to look into. When compared to larger press brakes, small brakes such as the Bystronic Xpert 40 can process two to three times more parts in the same amount of time. The smaller press brake is faster due to the ability of the machine to accelerate and decelerate both the smaller and lighter upper ram and the smaller back gauge system. This provides not only more throughput capability, but more capacity to bend even more parts on your existing press brakes. The smaller thinner parts can be processed on the smaller press brake much faster, freeing up capacity for the larger brakes to process more parts in the larger size range.
The Right Tool for Increased Efficiency
Using the correct press brake on the right applications can not only speed up bending operations but can also create greater machine capacity and flexibility in scheduling.
By Frank Arteaga, Head of Product Marketing, NAFTA Region
Bystronic Inc., Elgin, IL – Voice.bystronic@bystronic.com