In this industrialized world, sheet metal processing machines are playing a very important role in metal forming field. When it comes to bending, flexible panel bender featured by high automation and intellectualization accounts for a large proportion and is gradually replacing ordinary press brake.

For traditional press brake, human assistance is of the essence and more than one set of bending tools are needed under normal circumstances. In addition, workpiece available is usually restricted by width between columns and throat depth, requiring much time and effort.

However, flexible panel bender, as a new generation of fully-automatic multi-side bending machine, is widely honored as a milestone product for sheet metal manufacturing while marching into production automation. Through multi-axis linkage, the panel bender can finish bending by itself, avoiding dependence on bending tools and manpower. With a wide range of diversified bending shapes, it is able to satisfy most demands of users. In addition to efficiency gains and reduction of production costs, the panel bender will give a big push to bending market at home and abroad.

Compared with traditional press brake, flexible panel bender is mainly featured by following advantages:

1.Bending Speed

The panel bender is fully-automatic and can bend workpiece at 0.2s/bend at most, requiring much less cycle time while bending multiple sides over and over again. It is 3 times faster than traditional press brake. The more sides and complicated workpiece, the faster its bending speed. Relatively speaking, common press brake behaves badly in bending efficiency because workers must hold workpiece by hands in the process of positioning and bending, and repositioning is necessary for new folds.

2.Bending Tools

Thanks to a set of universal bending tools, the flexible panel bender, as a rule, is able to bend up, bend down, bend in right, acute as well as obtuse angle, and enables arc, dead-edge, U-shaped, enclosed-type bending and other complex shapes. When referring to ordinary press brake, a bending tool corresponds to only one type of workpiece, resulting in the necessity of tailoring a wealth of different bending tools at the higher costs.

3.Demands on Workers

In a general way, flexible panel bender makes low demands on workers. Even green hands can take up appointment after simple training, with no need for recruiting skilled or experienced technicians. Its full automation also helps to save number of workers and reduce their labor intensity. Unlike ordinary press brake that bends large-sized workpiece by many workers, flexible panel bender only asks users to put their workpiece on its workbench, followed by automatic positioning. This is a truly simple way to save time and labor.

4.Bending Safety

Automating the whole process of bending, the flexible panel bender gives up manual holding of workpiece, which has minimized potential safety hazards arising from workers’ misoperation.

5.Bending Safety

Graphic visual programming built in the flexible panel bender is fast to create bending instructions automatically after bending data are typed in by workers. No code programming. Workers at ordinary level may take only 2h to learn to operate. With regard to common press brake, operators must master its complex programming skills and memorize all bending orders of each fold. In addition to such high challenges, it is likely to go wrong.

6.Bending Safety

Owing much to automatic positioning of workpiece, the flexible panel bender enjoys high degree of consistency among finished products. As thus, mass production will be accordingly realized.

7.Bending Safety

To dock with both upstream and downstream production lines, the flexible panel bender has reserved lots of external interfaces for users. Working with industrial robots, the panel bender can also make your loading and unloading automatic. Under the same control system, there is a high level of cooperativeness between these robots and the machine body. When workpieces to be bent are changed, users only need to alter the built-in procedures of flexible panel bender. Such high degree of flexibility is attractive to most users of traditional press brake.

8.Bending Safety

Our flexible panel bender is self-developed under the support of a large number of core technical patents. Machine upgrade is free-charged throughout its lifetime. It follows the Industry 4.0.

Nowadays, the flexible panel bender is rapidly developing in terms of CNC system and flexibility. It is critical to the modern sheet metal forming and has broad prospects for development. Given market changes and new situations in 2024, we believe the panel bender will surely develop much better.