Flexible bending automation

Bystronic opened the door for it, and with the Mobile Bending Cell 80 is bringing a compact and powerful bending solution to the market that enables both automated and manual bending.

The Mobile Bending Cell 40 is a success story. The flexible bending automation won the innovation prize in the “Warm/cold forming technology” category at the Blechexpo 2017 in Stuttgart. The combination of the most modern bending robotics and the compact Xpert 40 pressbrake with a press capacity of up to 40 tons impressed the jury from the “MM Maschinen Markt” and “Blechnet” industry magazines – and subsequently customers as well. The great demand exceeded the wildest expectations.

Now, the company is launching the big sister of the innovative automation solution: the doubly strong Mobile Bending Cell 80. It deploys a press capacity of up to 80 tons along a bending length of around 1.5 meters. This powerful Xpert 80 pressbrake makes this possible. Anyone who already has access to the manual press can easily upgrade it to a fully automated Mobile Bending Cell. In doing so, the Mobile Bending Robot is simply brought to the Xpert, and within ten minutes it is installed and referenced.

Producing even at night

The modular design delivers the greatest flexibility. The keyword: automation on demand. Because just as easily as the robot can be docked to the pressbrake, it can be set aside again. Sheet metal workers no longer need to choose between manual and automated production – they can have both, and switch back and forth according to the order situation. Small batch sizes or complex parts can be manufactured as before, while large series can be manufactured with the 6-axis Mobile Bending Robot.

This flexibility is called for more and more frequently these days, because bent parts increasingly appear in a variety shapes, sizes, and quantities. And it is always of matter of producing the parts as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. The Mobile Bending Cell meets these needs. With the robot option, efficiency increases and at the same time makes the operator’s job easier. Thus, production can even continue at night – once the bending orders have been programmed, production continues without interruption.

Intuitive user guidance

The offline programming of bending orders using the Robot Manager software and data import in the ByVision Bending user interface is very easy and intuition-based. Prior knowledge is not necessary. “The software is a big distinguishing feature of our Mobile Bending Cell,” says Benedikt Kreisel, Product Manager Bending Automation at Bystronic. “Our combination of simple user guidance and the highest precision remains as unique as ever.”

The manual Xpert pressbrake distinguishes itself with high precision using its real-time compensation systems. To be sure, “If an operator works on multiple machines simultaneously over eight hours, the error rate increases,” says Kreisel. That is not the case for robots. Thus, repetition accuracy can be further optimised through automation. The optionally included conveyor belt offers additional process reliability: Even more reliable than the bent-parts slide, it ensures that bent parts remain undamaged during removal.