What is CNC punching?
The first CNC punch press machine that we ever purchased was a brand new RPA Titan with a 10 station turret, no auto-index stations and 25 tons of hydraulic force. Compared to today’s fast machines like our Trumpf 3000R it was slow but for its day it was a big step forward for us as prior to having this CNC machine we had been guillotining every part to size, notching every corner taht was needed and piercing every hole by hand using fly-presses. This CNC punch press enabled us to nest parts together, standardise component sizes and pierced features and produce parts much faster.
So with all the fast and sophisticated CNC punching machines we have now why should we bother to keep this slower CNC punch press in the workshop? Well, it has several uses where it would be more difficult to use our Trumpf CNC punch presses. There is always the need to CNC punch slots and holes in metal extrusions which may be heat sinks, ventilation grilles, free issued front panels etc, the Titan punch press is perfect for these types of sheet metal work projects. The need to keep reaching over the bed of the machine to clamp work is much easier for the operator on our small foot print Titan punch press than on a large CNC punch press machine bed like our Trumpf 200 or Trumpf 3000. Also, when we have small batches of these type parts we are not holding up our main sheet metal production machines which can concentrate on the standard sheet metal CNC punching.
We use a simpler programming system from the Radan CAD/CAM software that we use to program our Trumpf CNC punch presses called G-Coder professional. This software allows us to take data as DXF files from Radan if needed and then write CNC programs to punch out extrusions, gear plates, heat sinks etc. It’s ideal for small one off jobs, manufacturing production jigs, welding fixtures etc with the G-Coder professional software being quick and easy to use time is not lost getting these sheet metal parts from the design office to the factory shop floor.
We have built up a large CNC tooling library over the years and this enables us to offer most standard hole sizes when using this CNC punch press without any additional customer tooling costs.
With all the machines we have in Fareham, Hampshire at V & F Sheet Metal it’s about having the flexibility to offer our customers the right services, at the right time and at a price that is competitive in todays UK market when manufacturing sheet metal fabrications.