How to choose a robotic bending cell and a flexible bending center?

How to choose a robotic bending cell and a flexible bending center?

With the rapid development of sheet metal production in the direction of automation and intelligence, the application of robotic bending cells and flexible bending centers is becoming more and more popular, so how do companies choose?

First of all, to say that the sheet metal industry bending needs to solve the following problems.

1、Can not achieve multi-species, small batch, fast switching;
2、The sheet metal industry high-precision workpiece bending processing accuracy is low, the quality is not stable;
3、Sheet metal bending operators are scarce and workers have high labor intensity;
4、Personnel cost, safety hazard, process layout, management operation.
Secondly, to find out how the robot bending unit and the flexible bending center can perform sheet metal bending?

A robot bending cell

1. Robotic bending cell system features

– Multi-species production, product switching without the first piece of test, no programming instruction, within 10min to complete the product model production switching.
– No need for professional mechanics, only operators with strong learning ability and good research.
– 100% product accuracy is guaranteed.
– Integrated components to ensure safe and reliable system.
– Reasonable layout and atmospheric appearance.

2. Technical characteristics of the robot bending cell

(1) Design and development
In the robot bending cell design and development, one is to focus on the user’s personalized needs and customization characteristics, customer needs as a priority, in the development of each technical program and the customer for detailed technical exchanges; second, the workpiece processing drawings provided by the customer for computer simulation analysis; third, the customer’s typical workpiece for field sampling tests; fourth, the customer’s workpiece for classification analysis and data processing .
After confirming that the above procedural work is completed, then the technical plan is formulated, and the full design can be carried out after the technical plan and the plan drawing are approved by the customer.

(2) Material application
The bending machine frame of the robot bending unit inherits the material characteristics of Italian sheet metal equipment, and the material is 45# steel or Q345B, which has the characteristics of good comprehensive mechanical properties, good rigidity, high strength and good stability.

(3) Unique frame structure
Traditional bending machine generally adopts welded frame, including left and right columns, lower crossbeam (table), fuel tank and support square beam with integral welded structure. The robot bending unit bending machine frame does not use the welded frame structure, but the frame riveting technology, the lower crossbeam (table) and the column using high-strength steel bolts fastened connection, this flexible connection to fully ensure that the machine body in the case of high-strength load, can largely reduce the frame stress deformation, to maintain the long-term stability of machine accuracy.

Its structural features.
– Ensures no welding stress deformation of the machine.
– Improves the accuracy of machine assembly.
– Extends the service life of the machine.
– Significantly improves the accuracy of hydraulic compensation.

Its structural features.
– Ensures no welding stress deformation of the machine.
– Improves the accuracy of machine assembly.
– Extends the service life of the machine.
– Significantly improves the accuracy of hydraulic compensation.

(4) Sensor technology (precision potentiometer) application
In order to ensure high-precision sheet metal bending, the upper beam (slider) and lower beam (table) of the bending machine is installed with sensors, in the working state of the upper and lower beam deformation, real-time accurate feedback to the CNC system (PC), the CNC system after calculation and comparison, the output of the corresponding compensation value to drive the compensation cylinder for dynamic compensation, in order to obtain satisfactory accuracy of the parts.

(5) Compensation technology
Regardless of the changes in bending conditions such as sheet thickness, length or bending position, it can ensure that each bending angle is exactly the same within the whole length, eliminating the measurement error of the scale and ensuring the accuracy of the machine.
The automatic deflection system simplifies the complicated trial bending work process by closed-loop control in the case of bending with a certain plate thickness. Even if the length of the bent workpiece is different, or in different positions of the bending machine, it can ensure that the bent workpiece has exactly the same angle and straightness without manual intervention. High bending accuracy and stability can be achieved, complete with real-time dynamic compensation.

(6) Bending follower technology
In the bending process, the robot bending unit can automatically follow and adjust automatically according to the running speed of the bending machine ram in response to the workpieces of different sizes and plate thicknesses.

(7) Laser angle measurement technology
Laser angle online measurement system, in the robot automatic bending process, its automatic application and built-in laser angle measurement device of automatic angle measurement to ensure the accuracy of the bending angle.

Its main features are.
– Bending angle after workpiece rebound is detected by laser online.
– Force detection system automatically calculates the bending springback amount.
– Workpiece can be automatically adjusted in depth according to the width of the lower die.
– Through the closed-loop laser angle online measurement system, the bending yield is guaranteed to be more than 99.5%.

(8) Robot automatic gripper and die change technology
Robot automatic gripper and die change is one of the advanced intelligent automatic operation technology of bending machine, which consists of automatic die change software, robot and die library. When the automatic die change system is selected, the precision bending center can fully automate the bending of small batches of different products at random. Using the automatic die change feature, the dies in the bending machine are no longer the limiting factor and the parts can be handled unattended throughout. The gripper of the robotic automatic mechanism changes the tooling very quickly, ready to bend the next batch of parts.

(9) Software and control
Parametric programming, off-line programming and production management software are applied in the robot bending cell, while bending follow-me, automatic die change, automatic gripper change, flexible palletizing, real-time compensation, plate edge seeking, flexible flip technology and bus control technology are developed, which greatly meet the technical and software requirements of various customers for sheet metal bending.
The robot bending unit can increase productivity twice as much as traditional bending technology and process, realize safe and unmanned operation, and can reduce the original labor by 90%, which helps solve the bottleneck problem of sheet metal processing existing in users and fully reflects the advantages of intelligent manufacturing in sheet metal industry.

Flexible bending center

1. Flexible bending center features.

Customizable and flexible

(1) Universal bending tool
Automatic bending length setting system can provide high productivity and flexibility level

(2) Auxiliary tools
The auxiliary tooling system makes the Sentry bending center a versatile bending machine for all kinds of special bending.

(3) Adaptive automation
The modular design allows the integration of other systems for complete automation, such as different loading and unloading systems or other sheet metal processing equipment.

Automation saves time
– High productivity in panel bending
– Highly flexible machine
– Automatic part handling

2. Advantages of flexible bending center

– The flexible bending center can work independently and can produce various sizes of parts efficiently.
– The universal tooling can be automatically adjusted according to the programmed dimensions without any adjustment time, which ensures the safety of the operator and the quality of the product.
– The universal bending tool does not require any mold change time, and it adjusts in real time according to the length of the workpiece to ensure the quality of the workpiece. The operator’s personal safety is greatly ensured as no human operation is required.
– The positioning process is completed only once at the beginning of the entire bending, during which the cycle comes to operation, stops at the beginning, and rotates the part in a controlled manner. Sheet clamping and rotation remain constant during the bending cycle, and due to continuous rotation, 0.01° angular resolution is guaranteed for higher production flexibility.

The flexible servo bending center reduces manual intervention to a minimum and makes full use of available resources. After initial off-line programming, it operates fully autonomously.

Both products automate bending and help a lot to improve bending efficiency. Wuxi Shenchong feels that they have their own advantages, but also have some disadvantages, requiring different types of companies to choose according to their own situation and based on different products and production models.