Hit the Brakes
These are all recognized brand names and the Capital staff is proud to represent each of them, and will be introducing attendees to the SafanDarley and its electronic bending technology at FABTECH. The SafanDarley E-Brake is quite simply changing the way shops bend parts.
Safety and Speed, that’s the greatest advantages that the SafanDarley E-Brake brings to the market. Safety devices on all other press brakes result in a reduction in cycle time and productivity. With SafanDarley’s Unique Integrated Light Curtains, cycle times are dramatically reduced! Safety = Speed…not typical. With SafanDarley it is a reality.
Additionally, the SafanDarley’s servo-electronic drive virtually eliminates the need for crowning, as bending forces are applied evenly over the bed’s working length. “Each of those belt and pulley connection points is generating tonnage—it’s almost as if you had a series of cylinders sitting atop the ram, all pushing down in unison. This makes it very powerful while using less electrical power and no hydraulic fluid. And, because the force vectors are consistent across the bed length, we see only two-percent of the upper ram deflection compared to the other dual cylinder or Y1/Y2 press brakes,” says Jon Kahrl, Capital Machine Technologies Bending Products Manager (you might know him as JK).
Thanks to the SafanDarley’s integrated safety system, surprise visits from OSHA will now be welcomed, not feared. Another welcome sight will be your production metrics—the E-Brake is not only extremely safe to operate, but fast and flexible enough to compete on any job, regardless of quantity, part difficulty, or accuracy requirements.
“The SafanDarley gives you the ability to say, ‘All right, I want to make one of these, five of those, and nineteen of something else,’ and get them done in less time than you ever thought possible,” says JK. “It’s the combination of four elements—the software, the machine, the safety, and the speed—that makes this machine completely different than any press brake on the market.”
The Circle of Death
Let’s start with the software. JK refers to the traditional method of press brake setup and its handful of trial parts in order to develop an accurate flat pattern for the formed part. In most cases, shops need to take a solid model out of the solid modeling software, cut one part and bend that part. If the part is not correct, it usually requires multiple trial parts being cut and bent until a correct part is produced. JK refers to this process as the “Circle of Death”.
When in the “Circle of Death” companies find themselves in a pattern of lost profitability, and quite possibly, their business.
First Part Right Part
The SafanDarley Software and the SafanDarley E-Brake disrupts this “Circle of Death” with an on-board (or standalone, if you prefer), programming system that can produce an accurate flat pattern of even the most complex workpiece within minutes. This means no more time consuming test bends, no more tweaking of the backgauge to make an inaccurate blank work, or breaking into the laser for additional work piece blanks.
SafanDarley’s touchscreen display allows even less-skilled operators to quickly sketch a part or import a 3D-model, flatten it, determine the proper bend sequence, simulate the process on-screen, and have a finished part in his or her hands on the first try. Parts can even be programmed on a tablet or other mobile device, then synchronized with the machine control prior to operation. It’s not magic, although it may seem that way.
There’s much more to the E-Brake than its robust programming capabilities, however. As JK mentions, the different elements of the brake work together in a seamless fashion—while the control walks the operator through the bending steps, the integrated safety system knows what step is being performed, and what’s coming up next. At the same time, the full-length two or six-axis backgauge keeps pace, and optional in-line material thickness measurement systems adjust for variations in material thickness and bend angles and material clamping point automatically.
Add it all up and you’ll find SafanDarley’s electronic brake to be more productive, more accurate, and far safer than other press brakes on the market. To prove this last point, Capital Machine recently invited Douglas Raff from Paragon Industrial Controls to evaluate the machine for OSHA compliance. The result, the E-Brake with proper documentation not only meets OSHA, ANSI, and CE standards, but exceeds them. Notes JK, “Douglas mentioned the SafanDarley as being excellent in design and its safety-features. Making it a fine addition to any shop.”
Keeping Pace
It’s also quite fast. According to JK, the SafanDarley E-brake outperforms any other press brake on the market by at least 30 percent, and is often upwards of 200 percent faster. “A Dallas-based global precision job shop recently replaced production of 3-4 hydraulic brakes of a well-known manufacturer with a single SafanDarley. They were doing prototype and low-volume work, along with high production run line items. ” he says.
“And for strictly high-volume production, I can tell you that Saylite (formerly known as Texas Fluorescent), has made 24 million bends in three and a half years on one of its E-Brakes—running three shifts, that comes out to one bend about every three seconds. Show me another press brake manufacturer that can do that.”
Much of this is due to the E-Brake’s ability to “stop in 80/100th of a millisecond like a light switch.” It happens instantaneously, it’s on, and it’s off… period.
Unlike “Straight Hydraulic or Servo-Hydraulic Press Brakes, otherwise known as On Demand Hybrid Press Brakes”, these machines require excessive time to accelerate, decelerate…pause…de-compress…and reverse ram direction during the bending cycle.
The SafanDarley E-Brake on the other hand is an instant on, an accelerated race car. Much like a well-known electric car, which in mode is the third fastest accelerating production car ever produced, with a 0-60 mph time of 2.5 seconds!
This technology also uses up to 50 percent less energy than hydraulic presses. Yet JK points to another product differentiator as one of the main reasons for the machine’s superior productivity, the integrated light curtain, which together with the smart control described earlier, paces its human operator, rather than the other way around.
“With anybody else’s machine, the operator steps on the foot pedal, the ram comes down to the safety point, he puts the part in, steps on the pedal again and bends the part,” says JK. “At any of those steps, he might stop to look at his cell phone, wipe his hands, talk to a buddy, whatever. The point here is that the operator sets the rate of production, which is often far less than the machine is actually capable of producing.”
With the SafanDarley, however, the operator makes the first bend and whatever time-wasting activities, he or she does after that have no effect on production. The ram comes up, the light curtain sees that the part’s been pulled out, and the control is immediately signaled to position the ram and backgauge for the next bend—because it no longer has to wait on a human to perform an action, the machine determines the cycle time, almost like a metronome to a musician. “The machine paces production… not the operator. It is brilliant if you think about it!!”
“There’s also a production mode available called the “2 Break Mode”. This is for large volumes or one bend or two bend parts,” JK explains. “When this type of production is required, the operator might have a stack of parts or blanks sitting beside the machine, and the operator can simply bend the first part and then wave a hand in front of the light curtain a second time to bend the first part. For every part formed thereafter, the operator simply removes the part (thereby breaking the light curtain one time), then inserts a second part into the machine (thereby breaking the light curtain a second time), and the machine automatically bends the part…in lightning fast speed!
Bend part after part after part, with the light curtain determining when it’s safe to position the ram, when it’s safe to bend, the SafanDarley E-Brake completely eliminates the need for a foot pedal. Nobody else has this functionality. This translates into higher productivity, as much as 200-300% faster than any other machine that is guarded by a laser or block laser type safety system. This translates into less operator fatigue, and a work environment that’s very safe, newcomers to SafanDarley are completely blown away machine the first time they see it.
“Sniper Scope”
Speed is great, but accuracy is even better. Most press brakes today use the traditional, now decades old C-frame style construction, SafanDarley machines resemble an O, with the gap on either end enclosed. SafanDarley’s O-Frame can maintain a much higher “centering” of the upper punch to the lower die; which translates into a much higher level of punch to die centering. Much like a sniper’s scope would appear if one was to look at a part being formed by being viewed with a sniper scope. The punch does not move left or right as the part is being formed. This positions the upper tool’s centerline directly over the bolster, dramatically reducing the yaw and stretch common with competing machine tools.
The SafanDarley E-Brake has much more open height and significantly more stroke than comparably-sized C-frame machines, and allows for a much larger area for part forming.
“Capital Machine recently installed a SafanDarley E-Brake 39-ton x 49” into a shop for a head-to-head test against another leading brand. One with a Competitive Fully Electric C-Frame 36Ton x 39” C-frame construction,” he says. “They performed a series of single bend and two-bend analyses for part accuracy. Over the course of the test, the SafanDarley proved to be three times more accurate according the customer comprehensive Histogram and SPC Chart, bend-to-bend deviation than our competitor.”
For those people in the forming market that believe that you must have an active or visual angle measurement to make accurate production, think again. Studies have shown that 95% of angle variations occur either due to the variation in the material thickness of the material being formed. SafanDarley has solved this problem with its revolutionary, “E-Bend S”. “It looks like a Pac-Man, which acts as a digital micrometer” JK says. “You can program it to check every part, every 5th part or every 100th part, it doesn’t matter—the micrometer will pop out of the backgauge and quickly measure the material before you bend it. If the thickness varies from the last time it was checked, the machine compensates for that difference automatically.” It off-sets the machine’s bend depth penetration to maintain angle accuracy. Additionally, it off-sets the machine’s material clamping position so that if a “back gauge retract” is part of a program, the operator will not scrap a part because of the part movement prior to bending.
Checking the Boxes
Safety? Check. Accuracy? Check. Speed and ease-of-use? Check. What about power? At first glance, the SafanDarley with its belt and pulley drive system might seem a little wimpy compared to tried and true hydraulics. Don’t let appearances deceive you, though SafanDarley has you covered—its largest machine boasts 330 tons of bending force and a full four meters of working length.
Between the machine construction, the control and software, and an integrated safety system that actually increases production rather than hindering it, there’s nothing else out there that can touch the SafanDarley.
JK says, “In my 25 year career I have never seen a machine produce such phenomenal results for customers. Installing the SafanDarley Press Brakes has been so gratifying as we see customers produce such impactful results.”
You really should experience the SafanDarley when you’re visiting FABTECH this fall. It’ll be time well spent.
#FABTECH18 #CapitalMachine #CapitalRobotics #SafanDarley
For additional information on Capital Machine and the SafanDarley please visit: https://capitalmachine.com/bending/electric-press-brake/
We would like thank Kip Hanson for his contributions on this piece. Kip Hanson KAHMCO LLC kip@kahmco.net
