Publications

This question is asked a lot, and even with plenty of experience answering it, it remains subjective by its nature. There is no “absolute best” press brake. There is, however, an absolute best press brake for you, and that really is the heart of your question.

Finishing is the final step in preparing metal products for use, a crucial component for any metal fabrication project. Finishing helps to make products more resistant to corrosion, while providing higher electrical, chemical or tarnish resistance. Beyond that, finishing adds additional durability and makes metal surfaces look their best.

When you are fabricating sheet metal, you want the results to be as precise as possible; a less-than-satisfactory job can result in a lot of problems later down the line. However, certain press brakes have tools with them that increase their efficiency and precision; they come with extra tools and parts that make them easier to work with.

Working in metal fabrication can sometimes require employees to engage in high-risk activities in order to properly perform their duties, including weld and manufacture ferrous materials. If you manage or are responsible for safety in a metal manufacturing facility, you know of the potential hazards that can befall workers.

The only way to reduce costs and increase productivity, solving the personnel shortage issue for the Baltic engineering and metal fabrication industry is manufacturing process automation and inventory digitization. Significant investments are required to achieve this, and so this process evolves slowly. The author looks into issues that arise in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and examples of their solution.

Due to a variety of hazards found in the workplace environment, metal fabrication can be a potentially dangerous industry if employees do not closely adhere to safety regulations. Fortunately, in recent years, the rate of non-fatal injuries in the industry has significantly dropped, indicating that safer equipment and effective safety regulations are successfully helping prevent common injuries.

The article's author, a metal fabrication professional, not only talks about best practices of maximizing punch tool and machine life, sharing his tips, but also gives an insight into the process of punching itself and some significant matters that need special attention in order to achieve the best results.

Many small job shops all over the world are still working with old mechanical press brakes with tooling from a different time, though both the machine and tooling have been well-maintained. I am sure many of us are still using these older mechanical press brakes, or press brakes that are just a little more basic than the state-of-the-art systems the articles usually discuss.

To gain efficiencies for complex jobs, fabricators turn to staged bending. Multiple tool sets are arranged next to each other across the press brake bed, allowing an operator to run a complex part, or a series of different parts, all in one setup.