If you run a fabricator shop, you must have business relations with different types of contractors with unique needs and requirements. Needless to say, your ideal hydraulic press brake setup may not work for all kinds of parts.
Therefore, you might have to tweak your press brake configuration to produce accurate parts which are suited to the need of the contractor.
However, there may be times when you are asked to produce certain parts that do not fit any of the configurations, no matter what you do.
For example, your standard press brake may not be able to handle parts that are lengthy. What happens here is that you meet the tonnage requirement, but the length of the prospective part exceeds the area of the center platform.
This is not an ideal situation, especially when you are trying to aim for accuracy and efficiency. In such a situation, you can either buy a new press brake that is huge enough to accommodate the part requirement, or you can use two smaller press brakes in tandem.
Now, buying a huge press brake has a lot of downsides, the prominent one being the exorbitant cost of setup. Therefore, to maintain the profitability of the business, it is advised to go for tandem press brakes. In this article, we will talk about what is a tandem press brake and top 6 benefits of utilizing it to make your job easier.
What is a Tandem Press Brake?
A tandem press brake is a highly efficient and versatile type of press brake machine designed for the fabrication and manufacturing of large and thick sheet metal components. With its unique design of two or more press brakes working together in tandem, it offers exceptional bending capacity and flexibility in the manufacturing process.
By working in unison, tandem press brakes can handle a wider range of materials and offer greater precision and accuracy in the bending process. With its increased productivity and efficiency, the tandem press brake is an essential tool for businesses seeking to take their manufacturing process to the next level.
Installation
When we talk about installing a press brake, a general thought springs to mind, which is the duration of setup and configuration. The longer the machine setup takes, the higher your production cost will be. This is because your plant is sitting idle without producing any parts during the time.
So, to maintain your business’s profitability, you must consider the option which takes the least installation time. The problem with large press brakes is that your factory floor may not have enough area to accommodate them. Hence, a lot of businesses drop the press brake on the site and then build a facility around it.
You can understand from this the cost of setup as well as the time it will take till your press brake finally produces a product.
Tandem press brakes, on the other hand, are cheaper, easier to install, and have a smaller footprint. Additionally, the transportation of smaller press brakes is easier, and you won’t have to alter your factory setup.
Speed
If you want to beat the market competition, you will have to be more efficient than others. Efficiency stems from two things, speed, and accuracy. With larger press brakes, the speed of bending is low. In contrast, tandem press brakes work faster and produce the required parts within the stipulated time.
Flexibility
Tandem press brakes work on a consolidated CNC configuration. However, this same configuration can be used to operate the two smaller press brakes separately.
So, you can produce the smaller parts without using the entire length of the tandem press brakes. This will improve your plant’s productivity.
Accuracy
In tandem press brakes, you are using smaller press brake machines. This means that you are working with smaller hydraulic valves, scales, and linear encoders. This allows the CNC to perform more accurately with better precision.
Sharing
In order to improve the efficiency of your business, you would want the same setup to run for different parts. This can be possible with tandem brakes, where the same CNC configuration can be used on different brakes to produce smaller parts.
Downtime
The fabricator business suffers a major setback when the press brake malfunctions and needs repairs. It is not affordable to let the machine sit idle. Hence, tandem brakes are the best option. Because if one of the brakes needs repairs, you can still use the other one to produce smaller parts. This will help cover the repair cost.
Conclusion
Large press brakes are not ideal because they are difficult to install and harder to maintain.
Additionally, due to the larger ram, it is hard to produce accurate parts on these press brakes. In contrast, tandem brakes are just an updated version of large press brakes because they have overcome all the shortcomings of huge press brakes.
If you are looking for a trustworthy provider, ACCURL is a leading manufacturer of Tandem Press Brakes that are designed to deliver superior results in the fabrication and manufacturing industry.
The ACCURL Tandem CNC Press Brake is equipped with advanced features such as CE LazerSafe LZS-XL tandem adapter and linear encoders, enabling faster and more efficient bending of long or wide parts. Contact us today for more information.
