Robotic bending system featuring automated tool changing press brake
LVD introduces Ulti-Form, a new robotic bending system featuring an automated tool changing press brake. Ulti-Form follows the success of LVD’s Dyna-Cell robotic bending cell and takes automated bending technology a step further by incorporating an automated tool changing press brake to keep bending productivity at its peak, handling both small batches and long production runs efficiently with minimal changeover time. Ulti-Form delivers high productivity bending with unattended operation.
TOOLCELL-INSPIRED DESIGN
Ulti-Form features a 135-ton press brake designed using the ToolCell platform, LVD’s top-rated automated tool changing press brake, integrated with an industrial robot. The press brake houses a built-in tooling warehouse and uses a gripper mechanism in the machine’s back gauge fingers to quickly and efficiently change tools. The press brake and robot work together in synergy to keep change over time to a minimum. As the robot picks the first workpiece from the input stack and centers it, the press brake completes the tool change. Ulti-Form handles parts from 50 x 100 mm up to 1200 x 800 mm weighing up to 25 kgs.
NO ROBOT TEACHING
Ulti-Form is automation that’s easy to use with a fast “art to part” process thanks to LVD’s powerful programming wizard. Programming of both the press brake and robot is handled offline and no robot teaching is required. CADMAN®-B software automatically calculates the optimal bend program. The robot software imports all bending data and automatically calculates all gripper positions taking into account the gripper force, collision detection, and robot reachability. It generates the fastest collision-free path for the robot across the complete bending operation. The system’s database contains all the setup information needed for the press brake and robot so that Ulti-Form is quickly readied for production.
AUTO-ADAPTING GRIPPER
The Ulti-Form robot gripper is an auto-adapting design engineered by LVD (patent pending). It has the flexibility to accommodate several part geometries, automatically adjusting to the workpiece size. This allows a series of different part geometries to be processed without the need for a gripper change, keeping production continuous and uninterrupted.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Equipped with LVD’s Easy-Form® Laser adaptive bending system, Ulti-Form offers automation with a quality guarantee. Real-time in-process adaptive bending technology adds advanced process stability to robotic press brake bending. The Easy-Form Laser system adapts to material variations, including sheet thickness, strain hardening, and grain direction, automatically compensating for any changes to ensure consistently accurate bending results.
AUTOMATION FOR TODAY
Ulti-Form is a modern automated bending system. Its efficiently-organized layout has a small footprint of 8 x 10 meters. The system includes three input pallets, a large output zone and drop zone for small parts, an automated pallet dispenser, and a conveyor system to transfer full pallets out of the system.
Designed for flexibility, Ulti-Form can operate automatically or in manual mode. Manual operation can be used for very complex parts and small series; automated production for long series.
Flexible, productive, and easy to program and operate, Ulti-Form offers a quick return on investment.
Ulti-Form will make its debut at LVD’s INSIGHTS Virtual and Live Tech events.
This content was originally published on the LVD website.
