CNC punch presses ready for action
Here at V and F Sheet Metal we are very proud of our 2 Trumpf CNC punch presses which are the very heart of our sheet metal manufacturing company. Up until the end of 2013 all our sheet metal working projects started off on either our Trumpf 200 or Trumpf 3000 CNC punch presses. In late 2013 we invested in a Trumpf 3030 3KW fibre laser to sit along side the 2 punch presses to offer the complete sheet metal blank processes service for our customers. These CNC punch presses have been great at producing such a wide variety of work in materials as diverse as 0.7mm stainless steel to 5mm aluminium alloys, from 0.4mm tin plated mild steel to 4mm mild steel, from 0.4mm pre-anodised reflector materials, pre-painted steel to 3mm zintec. Simply punching out flat sheet metal blanks to forming dimpled feet, plunged and tapped threads, ventilation louvres, formed CSK holes and a whole host of special shaped holes with custom tooling.
For more information on Trumpf CNC punch press tooling please follow the link to our standard tooling.
Video of CNC punch press in action producing mild steel sheet metal work
Fast Tube by Casper
Here’s our Trumpf 3000R in action CNC punching some 0.9mm mild steel gear box housings. This particular sheet of metal is 2M long and 1M wide but the machine can handle sheets that are 2.5M long x 1.25M wide without any re-positioning of the sheet holding clamps. Longer work can be produced with an automatic re-position of the clamps.
Mild steel CNC punching
We have had our Trumpf 200 for many years now and it’s just the perfect machine tool for thin gauge sheet metal work. Using Radan software to produce parts and complex nests of parts we can punch out single parts for prototyping and multiple thousands for production all for the same machine.
The beauty of a single punching head on both the machines means we can move from job to job very quickly with few tool changes enabling smaller batches of work to still be viable. Using Radan software to drive both machines enables us to swap jobs between them very quickly giving a more flexible service to our customers. Here you can see it producing sheet metal gear box bases for light fitting control gear. The dimpled spacer feet have been pressed in place and each was formed in under a second.
CNC punched stainless steel plates
This image of a stainless steel pump mounting plate illustrates a simple piece of sheet metal work but actually is typical of the power of a Trumpf punch press. The CSK holes have been formed into the material with a conical punch. A pilot hole has been punched first and then the CSK formed in one hit in under 1 second. The CSK form tool is much quicker than drilling a CSK form and neater. This CSK forming tool also allows the sheet metal work to come straight off the punch press and after a quick edge de-burring operation it’s ready to be shipped to the customer.
The keyhole shape has been CNC punched with a simple obround tool and a circle tool used together. Again, this is another strength of CNC punching in being able to combine standard stock CNC tooling that we have on the shelf and produce more complex shapes and cutouts without the need for new special tooling.
Perhaps you have a sheet metal work project that we can CNC punch out for you, we will be pleased to take a look and see if we can save you money and produce the parts. Please send us a drawing or give us a call and we will be happy to have a chat with you.