Innovative robotic bending system includes bending bench with automatic tool change

LVD, a leading manufacturer of sheet metal working machines, laser cutting systems, punch presses, bending benches, shears and automation systems, is responding by introducing Ulti-Form, a new robotic bending system featuring a bending bench that automatically changes tools. The bending bench keeps bending productivity high, can efficiently process both short and long runs with limited tool change times, and does so unmanned as well.

Following the success of the Dyna-Cell robotic bending cell, LVD is taking another step in automatic bending technology. Indeed, with Ulti-Form, the specialist developed a new robotic bending system with a bending bench that automatically changes tools. "While the smaller Dyna-Cell excels in the rapid unmanned machining of pieces with dimensions from 30 x 100 mm to 350 x 500 mm with a weight of 3 kg, this Ulti-Form goes further and bends pieces from 50 x 100 mm to 1,200 x 800 mm, weighing up to 25 kg," says Steven Lucas, Press Brake product manager. "This new bending system is equipped with a 135-ton bending bench and a KUKA industrial robot. The design of the bending bench is inspired by our well-known ToolCell. It has a built-in tool magazine and back gauge fingers with a gripper mechanism that allows it to change tools quickly and efficiently. The bending bench and the robot work in synergy to minimize changeover times. While the robot takes the first workpiece from the infeed stack and centers it, the bending bench changes the tools." In addition, Ulti-Form ensures piece angular precision thanks to LVD's Easy-Form® Laser adaptive bending system. This bending technology adds additional process stability to robotic bending. The Easy-Form Laser system adapts to variations in materials, such as sheet thickness, cold hardening and rolling direction, and automatically compensates for changes for consistent results.

No robot teaching required

With powerful, automatic programming, the user-friendly Ulti-Form goes quickly from "art to part," from drawing to finished piece. Programming of both bending bench and robot is done offline and no robot teaching is required. The CADMAN®-B software automatically generates the optimal bending program. The robot software imports all bending data and automatically calculates all gripper positions, taking into account the gripping force, collision detection and reach of the robot. The system also calculates the fastest, collision-free robot path for the entire bending process. The system's database contains all the necessary installation information for the bending bench and robot, so Ulti-Form is quickly ready for production. 

The simple step to automation

Ulti-Form is a modern automated bending system, efficiently organized on an 8 x 10 m area. The cell includes three infeed pallets, a spacious outfeed zone with room for ten pallets and a drop zone for small pieces, a pallet dispenser and a conveyor belt that places full pallets outside the fence, allowing long production runs. "Ulti-Form was developed with flexibility in mind and operates in both manual and robot mode. Manual mode is used for very complex pieces or very small runs, robot mode rather for long runs," explains the product manager. "The automatically adaptable gripper on the KUKA robot was developed in-house by LVD's R&D department (patent pending). It is suitable for a variety of part geometries and automatically adjusts to the size of the workpiece. The gripper does not need to be changed and therefore production is not interrupted."