Smart 5-meter brake for steel architectural elements and windows
Polito Serramenti was founded in 1969 by brothers Giulio and Pietro Polito. Over the years the company has specialised in metal windows and doors and curtain walls, and today occupies a 4000 m² site with state-of-the-art equipment. The staff put passion and knowledge into designing and manufacturing windows and doors for homes, offices and public spaces.
Image credit: Polito
The collaboration between Polito Serramenti and Gasparini has been going on for more than 30 years. Back in 1988 we delivered the first POA 45/5000 press brake and the CO 3003 guillotine shear. In 1999 they were replaced by a PBS 105/5000 press brake and a CO 4003 shear. A new 115 tonne X-Press Next press brake with a bending length of 5 metres has now been added to Polito’s equipment.
The press brake is equipped with a 4-axis backgauge (X-R-Z1-Z2) with two additional manual stops. Thanks to these 4 reference points, Polito can bend parts of widely varying lengths with great ease.
In order to guarantee a constant bending angle along the entire length of the profile, we have installed Gasparini adaptive crowning, which monitors the deflection of the upper ram in real time and compensates for it dynamically using cylinders inserted in the lower ram. This allows us to obtain the same bending depth in the centre and at the ends of the piece.
The punch clamps are the new Toolever, equipped with a self-aligning quick-release lever. With Toolever, changing punches is a quick operation even with segmented tooling, and no preliminary bending is required.
During the bending process, the side C-frames tend to open : this effect is known as “yawning” and distorts the positioning of the ram to varying degrees depending on thickness, material and length. To eliminate this effect and guarantee precise positioning, we developed Reflex, a system that monitors the deflection of the side C-frames and the oil pressure. Through modelling the structure, we can calculate the deflection and compensate for it to obtain a precise angle.
At the front of the press brake are four height-adjustable front supports and two wired foot pedals. The CNC is a Delem DA-66T that allows 3D visualisation of the bending program and direct import of DXF files. The CNC is equipped with a Tele-Link interface, which allows our technicians to configure and analyse the machine remotely. The CNC is supported by Profile Lite TL 2D offline software, a bending CAM capable of generating programs and sending them to the press brake. The CNC is also able to interface with the company’s information system, manage production batches and provide information on processing cycles, proper and rejected parts. This functionality, combined with the sensing of the Reflex system and adaptive crowning, brings the machine in line with Industry 4.0 guidelines.