Press Release / 15.09.2008 / copyright © 2008
RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH
Richard-Wagner-Str. 4–10
71065 Sindelfingen · Germany
Tel. +49-7031-863-0 · Fax +49-7031-863-185
www.RAS-online.de · [email protected]
Expanded metal bent precisely
Expanded metal applications are also common inside buildings.
They give a special
look to panels, e.g. in
airports and railway
stations, where architects can design costefficient and technical
ceilings, where lights
and
air-conditioning
outlets can be integrated easily and flexibly. Expanded metals
can be also found in
transport units, where
they secure the goods inside and allow liquids
to drain out. Wind gates on airports do not only
protect the airplanes from wind effects, but also from sand and whirling dirt. Other applications can be light and airy decoration elements
in show booths and shop design.
Expanded metal, a material with a highly
decorative character is very trendy for architectural design and function elements.
Where architects and product designers
come up with daring applications for these
sheet metal materials, production needs to
keep up with the new demands, and bending
of expanded metal often gave them quite a
headache in the past. RAS Reinhardt
Maschinenbau GmbH from Germany now
presents a metal folding machine that has
been adapted for the needs of expanded
metal bending.
The applications for expanded material are
quite numerous, including wall panels in parking garages, where it offers a lightness and
transparency of the facade but also protects
the garage from burglary and matches the air
stream requirements. In addition the uneven
material surface can be ideally used as tendril
screen to plant over buildings.
One thing is common to all these applications.
As long as the expanded metal only gets cut
and put in a metal frame, production is simple.
Metal shears easily produce a straight and clean cut. If the design requires the expanded
metal to be bent, production has to deal with
the special material characteristics of expanded metals. Bending on a press brake
cannot be considered because of several reasons. First, the material will move in the die
during bending and therefore it is impossible to
control the flange dimensions. In addition the
metal gets stuck at the die edge, when it gets
pressed into it. This will not only cause product
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positions the blank and the upper beam
clamps it. Then the folding beam moves up to
the required angle and stops. The first key allows him to move the beam down slowly and
sensitively, so that he can visually see the
springback. If he has moved the beam down
too far, the second key brings the beam back
to material contact. The third key starts a correction movement which will compensate for
the material springback. After the operator is
satisfied with the result he can move the beam
down to its home position using the forth key.
This simple and user-friendly solution allows
the production of metal parts without the knowledge of the specific material specification.
damages, but also wears out the tools. Folding
machines offer much better conditions. The
upper and lower beam clamp the material and
prevent it from moving during the bending sequence. While the folding beam moves up there is almost no movement between the expanded metal and the folding beam tool, which
reduces wear and tear significantly.
Another problem however still remains on
regular folding machines. Depending on
whether the material will be bend on the nodes
or somewhere in between the bend results can
vary in the same blank by 15 degrees. As the
clamping position cannot be determined in advance, technology tables cannot solve the
problem. It's rather a question of how quickly
the actual material springback can be recorded
and corrected. As the expanded metal surface
is quite irregular, all sensing and optical angle
measuring systems cannot be used. Pressure
based procedures are also not suitable, as the
bending forces for this material are very low
and inconsistent. RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH therefore uses a more pragmatically way for the angle correction.
The Sindelfingen, Germany based machine
tool builder has also modified the backgauging
system of the RAS FLEXIbend metal folding
system for this special execution machine. Instead of the individual stop fingers the machine
uses a high stop bar. It offers a solid contact
area for the expanded metal and can come as
close as 85 mm to the bend line.
The special folding machine execution for expanded metals includes a hand commander
with four keys. After the operator has started
the program at the control, the backstop bar
RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH · Richard-Wagner-Str. 4–10 · 71065 Sindelfingen · Tel. +49-7031-863-0 · Fax +49-7031-863-185
www.RAS-online.de · [email protected]
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The high quality sheet support panels with integrated ball casters hold the part in a horizontal position during the entire bending sequence. There is no need to support and follow
the long flange as there is on a press brake.
The backstop panels support the weight of the
part. The operator does not need to lift the expanded metal during bending and the reduced
handling reduces the risk that he will cut his
fingers so easily.
The 155 mm high segmented upper beam
tools offer a large free space in front of the
tool. This is a must, as a 90 degree angle may
require the flange to be overbent by up to 15
degrees. This tool height also allows the bending of four sided boxes with an overall height of
155 mm.
RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH is specialized in all sorts of folding applications. This
special execution folding machine emphasizes,
that special requirements sometimes need
special actions, to become real solutions.
Also the width of the folding beam tools have
been modified. For a better material contact,
the standard tool width has been extended to
65 mm with high tensile and plasma-nitride
hardened adapters sitting on top of the standard tool.
RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH · Richard-Wagner-Str. 4–10 · 71065 Sindelfingen · Tel. +49-7031-863-0 · Fax +49-7031-863-185
www.RAS-online.de · [email protected]
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