Using a Trumpf CNC punch press
Here’s a great image of our Trumpf 3000R CNC hydraulic punch press punching out some stainless steel chassis components used in a piece of electrical equipment. The punch press has been programmed to produce the parts in the sheet (nest) using Radan sheet metal software. Each part has been created as a 3D model in the software and unfolded automatically with all the bend allowances taken care of based around the material type and thickness. The individual part have then had tooling allocated to its holes and external profile based on the use of a standard library of tooling. The tooled part has then been copied over the whole 2000mm x 1000mm sheet to produce the best fit and therefore the most economical use of the material, which is really important with expensive materials such as stainless steel. You can see from the image here that 3 components at the end f the sheet have been turned at 90 degrees to the rest to completely use up the sheet, a feature that the Trumpf CNC punch presses can do really easily with their single head being able to rotate through 360 degrees. The Radan CAD/CAM software takes care of all the X/Y positions, angles, corrects tools and sheet clamping for the whole nest. We just have to put the sheet metal in and take out the finished components with the scrap skeleton at the end of the machine production cycle.
Typical CNC punched sheet metal work
I have included a closer look at the stainless steel chassis component that was being punch above. It’s a great example of using a range of CNC punch press tooling to create an outer profile with chamfered corners, 90 degree corners, straight edges and notches with cuts under and over 90 degrees. All this is managed with just a few simple tools rotated through different angles in the machines punching head, you could say the heart of a Trumpf CNC punch press. The rectangular holes have been produced by using several overlapping hits with the same tool, a technique that can be used to produce any sizes hole when a single hit standard tool is not available on the tooling library. This helps to reduce the need for new tools, keeping the cost of new part development down and speeds up tool changes on short production runs. The Trumpf punch press is particularly good at this nibbling action with its strong single head being part of the machines frame there is virtually no side loading of kicking on the tooling punch and die helping to protect the tools providing long tool life for us and a better component for you.
CNC punched aluminium lighting reflector aluminium
This is a more unusual use of a CNC punch press. We have punched out of a 2000mm x 1250mm sheet of special lighting reflector material a pattern or nest of reflector blanks. The blanks are only held in with a 0.1mm tag left unpunched at the corners of the component. The component can easily be broken out of the sheet by shaking it on a table. The blanks will then be folded up to create quite a complex lighting reflector used in a small wall wash lighting fitting with LED lighting. The material has already been anodised and carries a protective peelable plastic film. We leave this film in place so that the cutting fluids used when CNC punching do not stain the lighting reflector surface. The plastic film also helps to protect the surface when the component is being bent and then in the customers factory when being assembled.
For more information on CNC punching and CNC punch press tooling please follow the link.