Punch Presses are generally used in the Sheetmetal industry; however they may be employed in other types of industry where the process of punching out shapes of different materials is required.
The punch press is used for cutting and forming material into various shapes and sizes and is a type of machine press. These presses may be very large CNC operated machines which hold large complex die sets, or they may be small manually operated machines which only hold one simple die.
Die sets usually consist of 'female' dies and 'male' punches, and when pressed together with the desired material placed between them, may form a hole or even deform the material (workpiece) into the desired shape of form. The punch is fixed to the end of a ram which moves up and down during the punching process in a vertically linear motion, and the dies and punches are removable to enable different shapes and holes to be formed into the workpiece.
There are mainly two types of common machines and these are generally large frame metal pieces of equipment. These are C type frames and portal type frames. On the C type frame there is a hydraulic ram set at the top part which allows the punching process to be carried out. On the portal type frame, the ram is cantered within the frame to prevent frame distortion and deflection.
Punch press machines all have a bed or table with rollers or brushes incorporated into them to enable the workpiece or the sheet of metal to travel with low friction. Brushes are mainly employed when minimal scratching or similar marks are not desirable, and the brushes provide a suitable finish to the material. Brushed aluminium or highly polished steels are an example of this process.
Punch presses are machines used for processing sheets of material, usually sheet metal, and they perform the operation of forming or stamping the sheet material at specified areas. Many of these machines will have a system by which they are controlled, and CNC operations allow for automatic modes determined by a pre-built program.
A punch press is characterized by some basic parameters and these will include:
· Type of tool shop
· Tool shop capacity
· Size of working area
· The working force (20 tons for example)
There are different types of CNC punch presses and they include the hydraulic punch press, the mechanical punch press and the flywheel driven press. Punch presses are often referred to by their tonnage, and the sizing tooling needed for a specific task is a straight forward process as the tonnage required to form and cut most materials is well known.
If you are in need of this service check out our product pages, they contain many companies that specialise in this. John Cheesman writes about CNC Punching. Visit the Businessmagnet product page for details and suppliers of CNC Punching.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3813785
