Segmental bending: features of the device and varieties
Segmental bending allows to make products of various configurations from sheet metal. The versatility of such equipment makes it possible to successfully apply it not only in various industries, but also in the construction industry.
The manual sheet bender segment much surpasses in possibilities of the counterpart with a non-demountable working surface
Types of sheet bending equipment
Listogib, which can be made with your own hands, Is a device, which allows you to perform not only flexible, but also cutting metal sheets. Today, such equipment can be found in almost any manufacturing plant. It was first used in the XIX century, when there was a sharp leap in the development of industrial technology.
You can make trays on segmental sheet bending, casings, air ducts, profiles, clamps and much more
The first devices for this purpose were manual, much later, hydraulic and electromechanical sheet bending began to appear. Today, when modern technology has come a long way, manufacturers offer sheet metal bending machines to metalworking specialists, operating fully in automated mode, equipment with electromagnetic clamps and other types of bending devices.
If at first devices for bending sheet metal were used only to equip large industrial enterprises, today, even for household purposes or the needs of a small workshop, you can buy a compact electromechanical or manual machine, which allows you to perform a large list of bending operations.
Most segment benders are equipped with a disc knife for trimming blanks
Sheet bends differ not only in the type of drive mounted on them, but also by the type of working bodies. So, distinguish roller, roll bending machine, as well as devices with a swivel beam.
Segmental leaf benders are absolutely unique in their design, which have been actively used relatively recently. In fact, such a machine is a leaf bender with a swivel beam. Its peculiarity is that, that its working body, which affects the metal sheet, deforming it, composed of individual segments. Segmental (segmental, segmental) due to the peculiarities of its design allows bending, using one piece of equipment, perform flexible products of different sizes and configurations. So, segment sheet benders are more versatile devices, than a standard leaf bender with a swivel beam.
Beams of segmental bending consist of sections, which can be moved and changed, selecting almost any required working size
The modern market offers a variety of sheet bending equipment, which differs in its functionality, and the main technical characteristics of power, productivity, level of automation, etc.. Due to this variety, the choice of segmental bending machine is not difficult for manufacturers and home builders.
Electric machines
The manual sheet bender segment differs in high efficiency and simplicity of a design, however, it has a number of disadvantages, the most significant of which are low power and low productivity. To significantly improve the technical characteristics of such equipment, an electromechanical drive is installed on the segment or any other sheet bender.
Electromechanical sheet bender LGM-6 is intended for cold bending of metal up to 6 mm
The main elements of segmental bending, equipped with an electromechanical drive, is:
- bed, on which all other units of the machine are fastened;
- clamping and bending mechanisms, which are driven by electric motors;
- the electromechanical drive itself;
- guides and locking elements, ensuring the correct positioning and movement of the metal sheet during its processing;
- workpiece fixing mechanisms, which can be both mechanical, and electromagnetic;
- cabinet for electrical equipment and machine controls.
In order to increase the power of the electromechanical sheet bending machine, it is additionally equipped with reducers, which leads to a significant increase in its size and weight.
Hydraulic equipment
To further increase the capacity of bending equipment, a hydraulic drive is installed on it, which is responsible for the operation of the two main mechanisms of such equipment - clamping and bending. The hydraulic drive is rarely installed on devices with a segmental working body. Most often they are equipped with a standard sheet bender with a swivel beam or roll-type machines. This is due to the fact, that use a very powerful and dimensional hydraulic drive for segmental bending, on which processing of preparations of the small size is carried out, simply impractical.
Hydraulic segment machines will allow to bend wide-format sheets of considerable thickness
Devices with manual drive
In today's market you can buy and segment manual bending machine. Moreover, if desired, you can make such a leaf bender with your own hands. It is hand-bending devices of manual type that home craftsmen most often install in their garage or workshop., to perform simple technological operations with their help.
The main disadvantages of handheld devices, as mentioned above, there is their low productivity and low power. For this reason, such machines can be used only for cutting and bending metal sheets of very small thickness. in addition, management of such leaf benders, on which as the drive the lever mechanism is applied mainly, requires considerable physical effort, which should also be attributed to the shortcomings of this equipment.
Manual sheet benders can be completed with special segments for production of difficult elements
Meanwhile, self-manufacturing manual bending machines can save a lot of money, which would have to spend on serial models.
Pneumatic equipment
Pneumatic segment machine for bending sheet metal, as well as a leaf bender with a rotating beam, equipped with a pneumatic drive, received the least distribution in the modern market. This is due to the fact, that drive such machines, which is based on pneumatic cylinders, unable to provide power, sufficient for bending long and thick metal sheets. That is why such a device, which differs in the largest dimensions among machines of similar purpose, used only for finishing products made of sheet steel or small shaped parts.
Pneumatic bending presses process workpieces in dies, which can be changed, thereby expanding the capabilities of the equipment
Electromagnetic type machines
The segment electromagnetic machine is a relatively new equipment on the modern market, which is gaining popularity among metal professionals. Mechanical or hydraulic mechanisms are not responsible for reliable and accurate fixing of a metal sheet on such sheet bending, and powerful electromagnets. Such an innovative solution, that allows to refuse a massive clamping beam in a design of the sheet-bending machine, which allowed not only to significantly reduce its size and weight, but also to increase the accuracy of the processing.
Sheet bending machine of the STALEX EB electromagnetic type 1250?1,6 with the possibility of bending up to 135 °
Using a powerful electromagnet, by means of which the workpiece is securely pressed against the surface of the desktop with effort, the value of which can reach 4,5 t / m2, allows not only to perform flexible metal sheets of considerable thickness, but also to carry out products of even the most difficult configuration with high accuracy.
Segmental electromagnetic bending machines, usually, is a universal type of equipment. In a standard set of such machines, in addition to working bodies of the segment type, also includes a solid narrow solid standard beams. Due to the versatility of such machines, they can be bought not only large, but also small manufacturing enterprises, engaged in the manufacture of metal products in medium and even single series.
