CNC punching aluminium circular discs
When we receive a drawing for a sheet metal part that’s a circle you might think we automatically go for laser cutting. Well laser cutting is a great manufacturing process to use for cutting a wide range of profiles. It is the perfect solution for cutting circular discs but there is another option. By using a CNC punch press with special curved tooling circular discs can be produced very effectively. These curved tools are known as “banana” tools obviously due to their shape.
So why use a curved CNC punch press tool when a laser machine could do the job? Well the biggest advantage is that the curved tooling allows us to combine it with other tooled features not possible on a pure 2D laser machine. For example you may have a circular disc that also has some tapped thread or countersink holes that could be formed. These features are ideal for our Trumpf 3000 punch press enabling us to produce the part much quicker than laser cutting the disc and then having to use secondary operations for tapping the threads or drilling the countersink holes.
Circular aluminum disc
Banana tooling can also be useful with a CNC punch press if the material doesn’t suit laser cutting. For instance highly reflective lighting materials that are cut and folded to make light fitting reflectors cannot be cut on laser machines. Also, pre-painted materials are better suited to CNC punching as the laser cutting edge can burn the painted surface.
The main point to remember is that we have the ability to select the best solution to suit the sheet metal component design and material type. We can also use the machines in combination, perhaps by laser cutting a complex item and then transferring it to a CNC punch press to have threads tapped of a series of dimples of louvre forming
To see hos these banana tools work in action please take a look at our video here. You can see how effective the tooling is and ho quick the parts can be produced.
Fast Tube by Casper
As ever if you have a sheet metal design where it has a circular form or not we will be happy to take a look at it for you. Please send your drawings to sales@vandf.co.uk as we will work on some price options for you.