You can see from our Radan web page data that we have all the software CAD/CAM tools we need to efficiently and accurately communicate with you when quoting for and working on your specific design. Unfolding an accurate developed sheet metal blank, CNC punch tooling and nest optimisation is only half the story. Where necessary, we also need to be able to calculate the most efficient CNC bend sequence to fold up your sheet metal components.
TruTops Bend software can take the developed sheet metal blank directly from Radan and automatically calculate the best bending sequence and determine the right tool combination required to bend your component. The bending process is simulated within the software and 3D animations highlight possible areas of collision between the CNC press brake, its tooling and the sheet metal part itself. All these issues can be addressed before the design is allowed to reach production saving machine time and possible scrap product.
Trutops Calculate Full
When there are a number of parts to create a sheet metal fabricated assembly TruTops can calculate the best series of tooling programs needed to produce all the parts with the least tooling changes. With large complex assemblies this can be left to run overnight if needed and the solution is then ready to be run in the morning.
All the CNC bending features that are available on our Trumpf 7036 CNC press brakes is fully supported by our Trumpf TruTops CNC bending software and is linked directly to each machine on our company network.
In the other corner, you have OEM-developed nest programming software where the same company that builds the machine also develops the software, with the prime goal of optimizing their own machines(s) to the fullest. Examples of OEM-developed software include TruTops (TRUMPF), BySoft (Bystronic), ProNest (Hypertherm), AP100US (Amada), Columbus (ESAB), CADMAN (LVD Group), FlowNest (Flow), and IntelliMAX (Omax).
Breaking: This section indicates that developpable surfaces have to be crunched, that is to say decomposed to several bended parts. It is possible to indicate a default number of bending lines or ask the system to automatically calculate the number of bending lines to use regarding the spacing value between the lines. This spacing is the waranted minimum value, it means that two lines will have at least this distance between themselves. The spacing is calculated on the center of the surface.
Spacing: It is possible to enter the number of bending lines or enter a gap between bends, then TopSolid automatically calculates the number of bending lines (always >= 3, so that two successive bends are near the gap on the middle of the bends, but never under this gap).
This instructable shows how to calculate kerf when making a box. Kerf is the width of material removed in the cutting process. Compensating for kerf will insure that your joints have just the right snug-ness.
In step 3, we calculated kerf to be 0.005. This value represents the full width of the laser beam. However, the laser beam travels along the center of the cut line, so only half of the laser beam falls inside the part. Therefore, you only need to offset each cut line by one half the laser beam's kerf value.
Tim Heston, The FABRICATOR's senior editor, has covered the metal fabrication industry since 1998, starting his career at the American Welding Society's Welding Journal . Since then he has covered the full range of metal fabrication processes, from stamping, bending, and cutting to grinding and polishing. He joined The FABRICATOR's staff in October 2007.
There are many businesses that quote by using the set-up plans of the machines as a guideline for the total time and material, which they calculate into a final price. However, to make these estimations requires a lot of upfront work to generate these set-up plans. And since not every quote becomes an order, it can be quite a big waste of time.
For metal fabricators, this means that a customer can upload their 2D and 3D-CAD models, combined with the technical product requirements, where a CAM software system analyses the requirements and calculates the price of the product. The price is based on the configuration of the product. 2ff7e9595c